Northgate Swings To Profit; To Increase Rental Prices

30th Jun 2010 08:27

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Van rental company Northgate PLC (NTG.LN) Wednesday reported a swing to profit in fiscal 2010 and said its focus now is to complete a restructuring of its U.K. operations and increase its rental prices. Northgate said it intends to replace its 20 individually-branded U.K. businesses with 12 Northgate-branded regional operating units. Such a move will enable it to better manage its fleet, it said. Northgate, which operates in the U.K. and Spain, said its aim is to adjust its fleet size so that 90% of it is in use at any one time, while higher rental prices will boost profit. Northgate reported a pretax profit of GBP9.62 million for the year to April 30, compared with a loss of GBP195.6 million a year earlier. Revenue declined 7.5% to GBP563.7 million after demand dipped and Northgate cut the size of its fleet. Earnings were weighed on by restructuring charges and a series of finance costs relating to Northgate's borrowings. However, the previous year's earnings were hit by a GBP180.9 million impairment charge. Northgate wrote down the value of its businesses and its fleet when trading slumped. Earnings were aided by an increase in margins. -By Jason Douglas, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9272; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 30, 2010 03:27 ET (07:27 GMT)