10.3.10/3:07 am
Search Executive Hire Club
"Move over Obama, Corcoran's in town"
3 April 2009 14.27
At almost the same time that the G20 was meeting at ExCel, another influential leader was holding talks in central London - and his opinions and commitments will have a more immediate impact on our industry. Speedy Hire’s Chief Executive Steve Corcoran was clearly in fine form as he announced that Speedy has re-negotiated its banking covenants and reduced its loans by £25m to £300m. In order to achieve this, it is paying an interest rate of 2-4% over LIBOR. Just for good measure, Speedy is also paying a one-off fee of £4.5m to the banks for their agreement to changing the terms of this loan.
The City liked this news and its share price rose sharply. This news should also put to rest the endless number of calls I get asking if Speedy is going to survive. Scaremongers and conspiracy theorists can now move onto someone else. Whether you like it or not, Speedy is in reasonable shape, it will trade successfully through this downturn, it is our market leader and will remain so for some time.
This recession is hurting Speedy, however. Trading remains difficult. In addition to the Great Speedy Sale, it has closed 17% (82) of its outlets and cut its staff by the same percentage (957 people). Significantly, the number of Hewden Tools outlets it closed in the aftermath of that deal in August 2007 and those closed since (both Speedy and Hewden branches) equates to the 188 Hewden depots originally acquired.
For all those suppliers bemoaning the fact that Speedy isn’t buying, Steve Corcoran stated that its capex in this financial year (started 1 April), would be £40m -£50m. Go get your share of that!
Steve Corcoran also revealed that Speedy - as part of a consortium with BSS, Hewden and Lavendon - has been awarded the hire contract by the ODA for the North side of Olympic Park.
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mark sinclair
6.4.09/7:02 pm
10.3.10/3:07 am
unfortunately for the hire industry Speedy still breathes as it lumbers from one disaster to another, this company has done more harm to the integrity of this industry than any other. Now they have bought all the major competition there is no real player to take them on forcing the construction industry to use them. Having worked in plant hire for the past decade and Speedy being one of those companies, seeing how they stretch their resources to breaking point with equipment breaking down and late deliveries the hirer's will turn to alternatives even if they have to pay more.