Lavendon Group Plc, parent company of Nationwide Access, the UK's largest powered access rental company, has announced a 14 percent increase in group turnover to £103 million. Nationwide's contribution was £60.7 million, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year, delivering a UK operating profit, before exceptional costs, up by six percent to £13.3 million.

The results, says Executive Chairman, David Price, are broadly in line with management's expectations. Lavendon, which is also the clear European market leader with operations trading under the name Zooom in Austria, France, Germany and Spain, increased its active customer base overall by 15 percent to just over 34,500. Nationwide's contribution in the UK was up by six percent to nearly 14,400.

These latest results follow two years of major investment in hire fleets, particularly in the UK, to a position where David Price is confident that Nationwide's planned growth objectives can be realised from the current fleet of more than 6,000 machines and 50-strong depot network.

David Price comments: "We are encouraged by the continued growth of powered access generally in the UK, in spite of considerable current weakness in the manufacturing sector, which is one of our major markets. He concludes: "We remain convinced that the long-term case for powered access rental in Europe is compelling, and we believe that the plans that are in place will enable Nationwide to make further progress this year."

Lavendon is now the sixth largest powered access company in the world. In addition to its European interests, the company also has a number of Rapid Access operations in the Middle East.

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March 2003 Nat3.081a