Speedy Hire H2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
June 18, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Speedy highlighted the ProService commercial agreement as transformational, contributing about GBP 50 million-GBP 55 million of revenue and expected to be earnings accretive in its first full year after integration.
  • Neutral Sentiment: The company said its Velocity strategy is on track, with the enable phase completed on time and on budget and the business now entering the deliver phase focused on embedding technology, data, and customer-service improvements.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management emphasized strong multi-year contract wins and growth in services, including Thames Water, Amey, and other infrastructure-related opportunities, while national customer performance offset weaker regional demand.
  • Negative Sentiment: FY 2026 profit was pressured by a challenging UK construction market, customer-led delays, cost inflation, and higher operational gearing, which contributed to a 12% decline in EBITDA.
  • Positive Sentiment: Despite higher leverage after funding ProService, the company said cash generation and conversion were strong and it expects meaningful deleveraging over the next one to two years, supported by lower capex and cost savings from restructuring.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Speedy Hire H2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your time and interest to join our call. As Hannah mentioned, I'm Dan Evans, Chief Executive of Speedy, and with me is Paul Rayner, our Chief Finance Officer. Most of you will have heard from us, I imagine, at some time previously. Thanks, Hannah.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

If I just take you through the highlights of what we're going to go through to begin with. Really pleased as we communicated about halfway through our year to have secured the transformational commercial agreement with ProService. For Speedy Hire, that represents GBP 50 million-GBP 55 million of revenue, with significant earnings accretion in its first full year post-integration. That integration is progressing positively and is trading encouragingly for us as we speak to you today with conversion improving on the deal, and we'll talk about that a bit later on.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Velocity, Speedy's strategy that we launched in July 2023, has progressed well on time and on budget, despite the difficult macro and as the group now enters the Deliver phase of that strategy, the subsequent last two years of the strategy as we communicated it. Fundamentally, Speedy Hire is a different business. We've made the business more efficient and we've made it more scalable to grow and take the benefit of that growth in the margins as we progress forward, and I'll talk about that a bit later on. Data reporting and the management tools that we've made available are really important to that growth and unlocking its potential as we grow forwards. The Deliver phase of that strategy is still focused on taking market share, working with more of our existing customers to open new opportunities and unlocking new customers for Speedy Hire.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Importantly, it's important that those tools allow us to measure the customer experience at different parts of that journey. Are we doing a good job? Operationally, being able to measure how each part of our business is performing for our customers and understanding areas of opportunity or improvement. Overall, our revenues have been resilient with those market share gains that we've discussed previously, with strong national customer performance overall offsetting weaker regional customer demand. We previously updated with the deals with ProService, Amey and Thames Water, securing GBP 90 million of multi-year contracts, annualized as we go forwards, which we're very pleased about in additional to other opportunities that we've been working. Our services business is growing. The customer solutions business that we now facilitate through ProService is performing very well, as is Lloyds British, our test, inspection, and certification or TIC business that we have spoken about previously.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Probably for the last time, we'll refer to the reshaping of our fuel revenues. The fuel revenue has reduced due to the previously communicated change to a third-party fulfillment arrangement, where we now make a minimal gross profit as opposed to when we previously owned and operated our own fleet of fuel tankers. That change is now something that we're seeing going on being in perpetuity is how we manage our fuel for our customers. Profits clearly impacted by market conditions and customer-led delays that we've previously communicated, and as an impact of operational gearing and the cost inflation that we've experienced, that has dropped through to our EBITDA performance. Paul will touch on cash generation, but cash generation and conversion has been strong during the period.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

With the business currently operating outside of our target leverage, we expect to meaningful de-lever that over a period of the next year or two, and Paul will talk about that in a meaningful way as we progress through the presentation. Recommending a dividend in line with what we guided shareholders to when we communicated the ProService deal earlier in the year, so consistent with prior communications. Thanks, Hannah.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

If we move forward into the general business, look, U.K. construction continues to be challenging, and whilst it's forecast to grow, the outlook clearly remains challenged in a number of different areas. We've got the macroeconomic climate that we have been working in, where the risk remains in different areas, along with the geopolitical uncertainty that over the last few months manifested and that we've been working through, as have many other businesses throughout the U.K. and Ireland.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

From our perspective, that doesn't mean there isn't opportunity, but it is that uncertainty that we all need to be vigilant to and understand how we best navigate through those risks. From a PMI perspective, obviously an indicator that we've talked about a number of times to you in the past, it has remained in a period of contraction throughout the financial year below that magic number of 50, if you like. It's at 16, probably 17, months of contraction in the sectors that we serve, signaling that it remains challenged. Certainly different areas are more challenged than others, but we remain vigilant to that with the ONS and the CPA further downgrading their outlook, signaling that ongoing weakness in some of those markets.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Certainly of the sectors that we serve, infrastructure, the likes of nuclear, the wider energy and transmission sectors, and the water sectors, though, both in the short and the longer term remain areas of opportunity that we'll talk about. We continue to grow our market share across the construction market. We've been very pleased by that, and that's very much focused on the bigger wins and those multi-year agreements and extensions that we've referred to. Lloyds British, our TIC business, as I mentioned earlier on, remains a significant opportunity for the group, led by both regulation and legislation of a slightly different market to that that we normally refer to for the hire business, circa GBP 14 billion, and some really interesting opportunities there that I'll touch on with the group remaining positioned well to capitalize on areas of market recovery and increased spending commitments. Thank you, Hannah. Excuse me.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

In terms of the sectors that we serve, we just draw out a few key areas of growth and opportunity. If you look at rail and HS2, control period 7, CP7 in the railway, which is the main renewals part of the railway sector, does remain difficult and slower than expected in terms of the near-term activity and opportunity. The rail market is a very important sector for Speedy Hire and the customers that we serve. Whilst it's challenged, we're there, we are working with customers actively every day, and we're ready for the opportunities as they open up and through CP7 or indeed into CP8 and beyond. HS2, whilst there's obviously been the well-documented scrutiny around costs and timelines, it is a very important project to Speedy Hire.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

We're very proud to continue to serve customers across the project and continue to do so. That will continue to offer opportunities for Speedy over the coming years. The TransPennine route upgrade, so outside of HS2 and the control period, a project across the north of England, has actually been really positive for us in terms of the growth opportunity that that's opened in the railway, and we look forward to that continuing over the coming months and years. As you roll into nuclear and energy, Hinkley Point, Sizewell, those projects, very significant in terms of the investment being made. We're well-aligned. We have depots aligned to both. There is activity picking up, and we look forward to making the most of that as we go forward.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

In terms of the wider nuclear strategy and things like the small modular reactors and just everything going on outside of the Sizewells, the Hinkley Points, the Sellafields, we're well-aligned. We understand our customers that we are supporting in terms of their work winning and opportunities in that sector and I think that will continue to open up as an opportunity for the business over the coming months and indeed years. In terms of grid and transmission, both in gas and electricity, there is clearly a fantastic pipeline of work around the energy resilience of the country, very substantial in terms of the investment being made and very clear in terms of how we can support our customers and the benefit of our own strategic progress that will allow us to access that growth.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

AMP8 in the water, a very significant investment, the largest that we've seen in terms of those AMP frameworks. As we previously mentioned, we were very pleased to be awarded the contract with Thames Water, having not previously been that active in recent AMP cycles. That offers a really strong opportunity for the business going forward. There's a lot to do and a lot going on, again, across our wider customer base in that sector, and that's starting to build now in terms of its momentum. In terms of highways, maybe just drawing more attention to the Lower Thames Crossing, a very significant investment down near the current Dartford Crossing between Essex and Kent.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

That's starting to build a bit of momentum now. There is a focus that's come to us around net zero products and lower energy products and solutions that represents a good opportunity for us. We're working really hard on that, and we think that should be really interesting for the business as we go forward. Interesting sectors, growth opportunities that are building. As we go into people, ESG, and health and safety, I apologize for focusing on these. None of our customers would want to deal with a business that is performing poorly in any of these areas and we're very proud of the work that we've done across all three. I will always take five minutes of your time to talk through these. Our colleagues have been fantastic.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

We have not just been running Speedy Hire for the last 12 months. We've been continuing to change Speedy Hire as part of our Velocity strategy and transformation program and I'd like to thank all of our colleagues for their hard work and patience when it's not always been easy to run a business and change a business, especially in this economy, at the same time. It was important to us to deliver that differentiation, and we'll come onto that. Voluntary attrition for our colleagues remains at a record low despite the challenging market, and we've been recognized again for the third year running as a top 50 inspiring place to work.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

You can see the number of colleagues that joined Speedy as part of the restructuring of the ProService deal, including a small number of colleagues that transferred out to ProService as part of the services that they have taken on for us.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

The colleague onboarding and harmonization are part of that has been concluded and our colleagues that have come across to Speedy are now part of the Speedy family working as part of the wider team. We're very pleased to continue to work really strongly as well to have a number of colleagues completing and developing through apprenticeship and graduate programs and we remain very supportive members of The 5% Club and a gold member to that effect. ESG and specifically the work that we do on product has been very important to us. Continuing to increase the number of products that we bring into the business or evolve through the business that demonstrate a level of eco-performance, whether that's the material they're made from, the carbon that they produce, et cetera. Very importantly, all in a commercially sustainable way.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Our customers pay for it, and does it offer value back to our shareholders in the right way? We continue to do that as we go forwards. Emissions has progressed again during the year, and we were the first hire company to achieve a PAS 2080 standard that a number of our customers now ask us to work with. Very proud of that. EcoVadis Gold and continuing to generate social value throughout a number of areas and communities that we represent throughout the U.K. and Ireland. Can we move into health and safety, please, Hannah? Again, very pleased to continue to present to you a strong health and safety performance that we never take for granted. Our 12th consecutive year of RoSPA Gold, we are very proud of and reporting over 7,000 leading indicators, which is a good thing.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Reporting hazards, near misses, and positive observations across the business to try and prevent accidents and incidents before they occur is very important to us. A consistent year-on-year lost time accident frequency rate is never good enough. We are always striving for continual improvement, but consistent with previously strong standards. A number of our colleagues in areas of the business were recognized by one of our trade associations, the HAE, for our performance in a number of really important areas to the business. From Paul and I, well done to those colleagues. We're very proud of those achievements. In terms of our vehicle fleet, we sat here last year and told you that we'd invested in Samsara Vehicle AI.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

It's cameras across the vehicle fleet, commercial vehicle fleet, that monitor and measure our drivers' behaviors, and ensuring that they are always operating our fleet in the safest way possible. That's performed fantastically well for us in the 12 months since that investment was made, to the point where we've just been awarded the Safe Fleet award by Samsara, which my group health and safety director will be collecting next week. An investment that we've made that has made our people, our customers, and members of the public safer, our vehicle fleet safer, and should reflect in efficiencies for the business as we go forwards. Thank you, Hannah. If we can just move forwards onto strategy. We communicated very clearly that we expected the Enable phase, the first three years of our Velocity strategy, to conclude.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

It has concluded on time, in line with the year end, with the investment of circa GBP 20 million that we previously communicated concluding both on time and on budget, despite the challenge in macro. It would've been very easy at any point for us to lose bravery with that strategy. It's that bravery that has led to changing the business, retaining customer agreements, and winning new customer agreements. What that has led to is a fundamentally different Speedy Hire. We are technology-enabled, we are data-led, and we have AI in various different areas throughout our business, be it in asset management, the vehicle fleet that I just touched on, right the way through to our pricing strategy.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Velocity was never just about driving revenue. It was making the business more efficient that growth as we go forward can be more scalable and we can take more of the benefit of that growth within the margins and the margin expansion that we plan to do. Our transport optimization system has rolled out nationally. That's a bit of an image there on the right-hand side as a bit of an example of what that might look like. That's very important to us in ensuring that our vehicle fleet is optimal to service our customers and move our fleet around in the most efficient way possible. It will also mean that we intend to travel less miles. Less miles means less carbon. Less miles means less cost.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

It will make the business more efficient. It will allow us to run our operation better for the benefit of our people, our customers, and our shareholders.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

We said we would put a CRM in place nationally. We've done that for our sales colleagues. That flows through to allowing us to have a more accurate pipeline and an understanding of what it takes to win, what will our customers value, and what do we need to do to keep up the standards that we think we've represented very strongly in terms of winning more business. Our engineering community is now tabletized with apps available to be able to do inspections, take photographs, and upload them through to our customer portal so that customers in future can view and self-serve their own information should they choose, and everything with us can be much more live and much more intuitive as we go forwards. We've moved on to Microsoft telephony and contact system. Excuse me. What does that allow us to do?

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

It allows us to monitor and review how we're performing from a telephony perspective in servicing our customers. How long is it taking us to answer calls? What's the quality of those calls? How long is a customer having to wait for us to answer or to respond to them? We can be much more agile in moving calls and colleagues around the business, all centric around customer service. Our new transactional website, we've spoken before about our website not being a huge revenue generator for Speedy Hire. We now have our website live from a transactional perspective and with the ability to be more scalable, and we can develop different elements of that as we go forward. All of these things are done. We said we would do them, and they are in the business now ready to take effect.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

As you move forward into what we call our Deliver phase, the last two years of the Velocity strategy, the most important thing is to actually embed and impact the things that I just talked you through. There's no point us saying we've delivered a lot of change, we've put it over there, and it's done. One of the primary focuses is to embed that change to ensure that moving on to the next point, customer experience is optimal, is developing, is improving. With what we've put live with our customer experience systems and our CRM, we can measure that. You can see from the image on the right-hand side, we are actively pushing to more customers. How are we doing? How are we serving you? How can we improve? That was where we started saying we wanted to get to.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

We want to communicate through technology with more customers. We want to improve. We want to deliver that efficiency and that scalable operation Paul will talk to. We have reduced our depot numbers. We have stitched that together with our effective logistics because we need to be more efficient, we need to be more scalable, and it's important to see that come through. For our customers, whether it be in terms of logistics, being able to self-serve an ETA for a delivery, a collection, a breakdown should that occur, we want them to have the option to be able to self-serve that through our MySpeedy portal so that they don't always have to phone us, they don't always have to send an email, and we have another channel where our customers can be more proactive should that be the way that they choose to trade.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Always focused on our depot network, our logistics network, and our assets all being underpinned by data so that we can always demonstrate to our customers and to our own colleagues how we're doing, where we can improve, and where our focus is. In terms of the ProService deal-- Sorry, Hannah, if we just stick on that one for a sec. In terms of the ProService deal, we continue to integrate with ProService, and we are pleased with how that is progressing. This is a new channel for Speedy Hire. We were not, as we communicated at the point that we did the deal, a previous supplier of the ProService marketplace, so it is a new revenue stream for Speedy. What we have seen is that those hires turn faster, that they are on hire for a shorter period of time.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

That can drive our improved asset utilization and our asset turn, it has also put a little bit of a pressure into the business that was slightly different to what we had seen in our own working pattern. Whilst that was a challenge that we've needed to navigate, that was also an opportunity for us in terms of that way of trading with ProService and what that could do for our assets, as I've mentioned. That integration is progressing well, and we expect that to conclude successfully during the financial year. Our trading platform is all about our colleagues and the visibility of when they are taking orders from a variety of customers, our trading platform pushing to them the information that they will need to serve that customer properly and telling them what questions to ask a customer.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

If they've ordered one of those, offer them one of those, that we are giving a seamless customer experience as often as possible through an omni-channel approach. Thank you, Hannah.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

In terms of the strategy overall, it is critical that we continue to focus on market share with both existing and target customers. It is very important to us that we build on the success of the work that we have won, that we understand the value that we are adding to our customers with the developments that we've made in our strategy, and that despite the macroeconomic challenges, those opportunities are there, and they do exist. Velocity has enabled us to collaborate with our customers to support them in their growth. Our customers want to understand what commercially sustainable assets we can provide them that aren't about paying more for things.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

It is about demonstrating the value while also seeing the benefits of decarbonization, less waste, better material diversity, et cetera. We need to be able to demonstrate through data the performance of our assets and our operational delivery, which we can, live. We want our logistics to be predictable and boring with clear system-led communications where we are just trusted by our customers, we've put that functionality in place to be able to do that. It's done, with our customers able to measure our service performance for themselves through their customer dashboards. We continue to use the value of our Milton Keynes Innovation Centre that we've used for a long time, EPC A+ net negative facility with our product innovation center on the front of it. Lloyds British continues to have opportunities to grow across the TIC sector.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

It is a systems and technology-ready business with Motion Kinetic in place as our platform. We have a national and diverse engineering base, all focused on the legislation and regulation requirements of our customers, where we are targeting the customers of Speedy Hire and how we can work with them in order to grow where we are already known and trusted with active relationships. Regional customers has been a challenge for us. That part of the market has been softer. We have seen the challenges from an economic perspective, we are working really hard to understand where we can engage with those customers differently, the value that we can add from a strategic perspective, indeed, an operational perspective. Our trade and retail customers have performed okay and in line with our expectations, with opportunities for that to develop and grow as we go forwards.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Finally, we have concluded a new multi-year contract extension with our partner in Kazakhstan for the joint venture that we have over there in that territory. We are pleased to have done so, and we will be able to update you more what that means as we go forwards. Very significant strategic progress, very important that we have done what we said we would do on time and on budget, and hopefully that demonstrates the confidence that we have in our outlook as we go forwards. I shall hand you over now to Paul.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

Thank you, Dan. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am going to take you through the income statement, talk about some of the bridges, and then a balance sheet and finishing on cash. As Dan's just said, the market was tough in fiscal 2026, but we managed a higher revenue that was flat on last year, a very resilient performance. We bought the ProService assets and the commercial deal, in my view, was absolutely a game-changing thing for this business going forward. We know that the regional volumes, regional customers are down a bit. Our trade and retail has grown over the year, but we experienced high operational gearing. In essence, our cost base is in the short run fixed, and if revenue declines specifically in hire markets, you get a disproportionate reduction in EBITDA, which you will see has gone down 12% year-on-year.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

Interestingly enough, in the first two months of this year, we have seen growth in total revenue of about 2%, and our EBITDA has grown by 13%, so it is a positive flick the other way. Our services revenue, which excludes fuel, we have grown customer solutions, and Lloyds British, having restructured it last autumn with new management, we disposed of a non-core manufacturing piece. It is very focused within its business section now, and that revenue is up 4%, and we think that is going to continue like that into fiscal 2027. I flagged last year that fuel, we were changing the model, such that we are now an agent for third-party fuel rather than a principal. The revenue declines, however, the margin is the same because in essence, we price our fuel based on wholesale cost of fuel.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

The margin is slightly down on last year at gross profit level because of the product mix. I think we have been very disciplined in cost control, the overall the costs have increased, national living wage, national insurance. We also took on 224 new employees as part of the ProService transaction, which in essence are drivers, engineers, so they are value add to help the revenue that we generate from the ProService deal. The margins of EBITDA are down a bit, that is purely revenue-based. We have, however, continued to generate strong operating cash flow, and I will talk you through that in a bit more detail, because that helps generate the cash to pay for CapEx and the other things.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

We did decide to fund the ProService deal through debt, and our leverage at the end of March 2026 was higher than our target range of 1x to 2x. We anticipated this when we did the ProService deal, and we expect to meaningfully deleverage over the next few years. What I would also say is during the year, the last six months, we've restructured the business as part of the Enable phase finishing, and we've taken out about GBP 5 million worth of overheads, either through depot closures. We've closed about 13 depots that they're at the end of their lease life or they were just not as efficient as we wanted them to be. We've also, middle and senior management roles have left. Either we made the roles redundant or people we've not replaced, and that's a GBP 5 million increase in EBITDA expected in FY 2027.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

There is detail on the non-underlying items in the appendices for you to read later. Next slide, please. This is a bridge of the EBITDA from GBP 97 million to GBP 85 million. The gross profits declined. That's a decline in regionals. National and the ProService profitability has offset some of that decline, but not as much. National Insurance and National Living Wage, when that changed at the beginning of last year, has cost this business about GBP 3.5 million. We did a pay review in April of last year coming through. The ProService overheads there are GBP 2.6 million. That's a four and a half months cost of employees that have helped generate the revenue that we've done with the ProService deal.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

Our share-based payments charge was nearly GBP 900,000 higher than the previous year, but it is a non-cash item, and it's just the accounting for the way we look at LTIPs and things. We have, however, had some benefit. The restructuring program we took part in in October, November, into the first quarter of this last year, last quarter of this year, started to show some benefits, which ultimately gave us the lower EBITDA at the end of the year. We expect to deliver these further savings that we talked about in FY 2027. If I could turn the page onto the balance sheet. The balance sheet's changed principally because of the ProService commercial deal. We spent just over GBP 35 million on effectively the 8-year contract that we have won. In the detail in the appendices, there is also an analysis of how that cash payment was made.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

We spent nearly GBP 17 million worth of kit. We took on a net two depots as part of the transaction. We also took a subscription of shares in what is now called ProService Marketplace, 9.99%. One of the things we set out in November, we said as part of the transaction, because we were buying fully utilized assets, 16.8, we would expect our utilization to increase in a full year by about 3 percentage points. It's in four months has increased our utilization by about one and a half points from just under 54% to just over 55%, and that's a direct benefit of the ProService activity. We spent money last year on hire additions and core fleet in anticipation of growth areas.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

We think we are now well invested in the kit we need, as a result, we've reduced our CapEx spend in fiscal 2027 from GBP 53 million in last year to about GBP 35 million, and that will be a pure cash reduction outflow in 2027. We still work very hard with debtors and creditors. We did very well with some of our OEM suppliers of our kit, and we managed to get some very favorable terms with us paying them for the kit that we buy on an annual ongoing basis. Our net debt finished GBP 159 million for the year, up on GBP 113 million, principally because of the investment in the ProService deal. We did say in November last year we'd expect the cash to be paid back between two and three years with a strong operating cash conversion, which we are seeing.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

I could turn over to cash flow bridge to finish off in terms of how we expect 2027 to go as well. We converted GBP 87 million of our EBITDA, 103%, 102%. That's above the target we set ourselves. We'd expect that because the more efficient we get, it's just that when we invoice the customer, they've had the product, and therefore there's no disputes, and they pay the cash. You pay for lease payments. We, in the year, we divested of a range of compressors, which helped reduce the gross CapEx level. Then you have interest and tax to pay. Interestingly, before non-underlying items, we generated just under GBP 14 million of free cash flow.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

The non-underlying there of GBP 10.6 million is principally finishing the transformation we've just done at the end of Enable, which is a cash item, also the restructuring we've undertaken, and I've referred to the benefit in fiscal 2027. That will not recur in 2027. We flagged to the market yesterday that we would not envisage any further non-underlying items. I think our transformation and Enable is finished. You'd expect that not to recur next year. We will anticipate the increased EBITDA coming out of the contracts from ProService and Thames Water to generate further cash. Also as part of the ProService deal in November, we reduced our dividend payments from a GBP 0.026 in a full year to a GBP 0.01, and that's what we've reiterated yesterday, and that will benefit us fiscal 2026 to 2027 by about GBP 5 million.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

We'll probably keep the GBP 0.01 at that similar level with a little bit of growth in 2027 and into 2028 with a return returning back to historic levels as the earnings from ProService come through. That's a cash flow bridge, in which case I'll now pass across to Dan.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Thanks, Paul. Just to wrap up in terms of both summary and outlook. An overall resilient performance in what remains a subdued and a bit of a nervous market. Encouraging trading from our commercial agreement with ProService we've touched on, and very positive multi-year contracts secured with customers that we want to work. Very important. Our Velocity growth strategy is on track as the group enters the Deliver phase, having been delivered at Enable phase on time and on budget despite the macro.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

We just move on to outlook. Thanks, Hannah. As Paul mentioned earlier, despite the challenges in the market, FY 2027 has started well. Total revenue up circa 2% and EBITDA up circa 13% versus the prior year. The previously announced customer-led delays are resolving, and we expect those projects to contribute meaningfully in the first half of the financial year that we've now entered.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

We're very positively placed for the longer term with a reshaped group with very strong operational foundations following the progress that we've made in our strategy, leading to us reconfirming the market guidance and outlook for FY 2027. Thank you all very much for your time in listening to Paul and I, and Hannah, I'll hand back to you.

Hannah Crowe
Head of Investor Access and Co-Owner at Equity Development

Thank you. Right. Is there any traction yet with Speedy Hydrogen Solutions, as there seems to have been a lot of social media and other promotion, and we're looking forward to seeing the revenue following up.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Me too. There's always traction. We have a good relationship with the team at H-Power, as they are now called, formerly AFC Energy that formed the JV with us on Speedy Hydrogen Solutions. We have a very positive pipeline. We have assets out there in the field. For us, it is a small number of assets. It's 15 to 20 assets presently in the grand scheme of things. Those assets being now out in the field and with that pipeline that underpins that confidence, I hope that goes from strength to strength, obviously, as a JV going forward. Those opportunities coming through should allow us to talk about that JV in more granular detail in the future.

Hannah Crowe
Head of Investor Access and Co-Owner at Equity Development

Okay. Thank you. Whilst appreciating that you don't have a crystal ball, the influence of the construction sector and the strength of it remains. With the government claiming it has a target of 1.5 million new homes, that sector should be booming. When do you see physical positive change coming through that will have a positive knock-on?

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

I potentially wouldn't be the CEO of Speedy Hire if I knew the answer to that question, but we're very aware of the commitments that are very important around building not just new homes, but the communities around those new homes and the logistics that stitch those new homes together with the fabric of society. It's not just homes, it's roads, it's train stations, it's restaurants. That's what will absolutely drive and catalyze this industry. Right now, clearly in the data that we referenced in the market indices, you can't see that coming through. I'm sure, Paul, you're the same. I wouldn't want to give a Dan Evans hopeful date on when I think that would occur.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

What I would say is it's very clear what the country needs in terms of that strong guidance on house builders and all of those related things, and Speedy Hire are well-positioned and ready to make the most of supporting that when that comes to fruition. Outside of that, I wouldn't want to give a commitment that made me look foolish, potentially.

Hannah Crowe
Head of Investor Access and Co-Owner at Equity Development

Sensible response. A question here on the retail business. I assume they're referencing trade and B&Q perhaps. Could you provide an update?

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

As I said, and I think Paul mentioned, it's performed in line with our expectations. At the moment, we are continuing to trade as we have been with B&Q. If you go on diy.com or tradepoint.co.uk which are two websites associated with B&Q, you will see hire products and those hire products are fulfilled solely by Speedy Hire. It's a low-cost model to us. A B&Q or TradePoint customer can go onto that website and order, or indeed they can order in store and we will deliver the kit and we will collect the kit, whether that is to somebody's home or indeed to a job site. We are working with one or two other companies, excuse me, in the sector, which we're very positive about. We have a rather interesting trial live, but it's a trial for a reason.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Perhaps I can give a little bit more detail on that when hopefully we're successful in turning that trial into something more meaningful. We still see, and market data verifies this, trade as a good opportunity for us with core kit at good margins for our business to serve more customers through the channels that we've got available

Hannah Crowe
Head of Investor Access and Co-Owner at Equity Development

Thanks. ProService. There is some uncertainty in relation to ProService's refinancing. Are you expecting to need to invest further equity as part of that?

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Look, we are a shareholder in ProService as part of the deal that we done at 9.99%. That said, we're not aware of any information that isn't available in the market. ProService updated the market...

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

Recently.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Yeah. Four or five weeks ago, something like that.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

I think...

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Expect to get their refi completed by August. That's what we're expecting to see happen, the same as other shareholders. We're, as you would hope and expect, not in possession of any alternative information to that. Yes, I'm expecting them to get that done in line with how they've guided the market.

Hannah Crowe
Head of Investor Access and Co-Owner at Equity Development

Thanks. What appetite and use cases are you experiencing from your customers for the transactional website? Do you expect to see any efficiencies utilized elsewhere as a result?

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Really good question. We've not done a very good job over a number of years in turning our website into a revenue-generating channel that you'd actually be bothered about. I'm not saying it never generated any revenue in the past, we've certainly not updated shareholders that we're very excited about it, I can't imagine it was that interesting in the past. We very clearly said that it has been important to us because, A, we want it to be a seamless customer experience for both retail, cash customers to be able to come on and check out with us. If you went on there now, having experienced that website in the past, I think you'd be pleased, very much so, with the different that investment has made in that journey.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Similarly, if you're a tradesperson, whether that be through your credit card or indeed through a trade account, I think we've made that a lot simpler. We've made the product selection simpler. You will see things coming through now like, other similar customers to you hired things like this type alternatives. What we have got, not in a way where I'm able to disclose to you who they are, we have got a couple of larger customers putting elements of their business through the website to see how it would work or how it would benefit them. What that should mean, both for us and our customers, is less wait and less intensity in terms of needing to answer the phone, respond to an email, or indeed right the way through to invoices just auto-matching. That should be really, really simple.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

The transactional website then link into our customer portal, MySpeedy, that then is where customers will be able to self-serve things like ETAs and engineering certificates and things like that, in the future. Hopefully, stitching all of that all together not only adds value to our customers because it's simple and easy to use, it should take time and motion type effort and cost out of the business for Speedy Hire and make it more efficient so that we're just spending more time looking after customers.

Hannah Crowe
Head of Investor Access and Co-Owner at Equity Development

Good plan. Question back to ProService. Looking for a little bit more color, I think, this individual, on how it operates in the nitty-gritty. How do you both compete in the same market? Is there potential for cannibalization and revenue with customers hiring from the company offering the best price?

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

There's a very important way I answer that question. In the way that the deal is constructed, we are a listed business on the main market. ProService are a listed business on the AIM. It is very important that whilst we supply ProService, we are also distinct companies and competitors. We do not see ProService's price...

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

No

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

... To their customer, and they do not see ours. We are competitors. What being competitors means is customers still have choice, whether that choice is Speedy or Pro or one of the thousands of other hire companies available throughout the U.K. Customers have choice. We are defined, we are distinct, we are different. We do not see each other's pricing.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

No.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Does it cause any, I think the word was cannibalization, Hannah. Well, I think what the deal was was different. It's not a straightforward commercial deal. It's not just someone giving price A, price B, that type of thing. It certainly wasn't a merger or an acquisition. I think the deal required a little bit of imagination. In the appendices of the pack, we have included the two slides that we used when we put the deal out to explain in the simplest terms we can think of what we've done and how that works. To repeat, the two companies remain distinctly different, distinctly separate, and competing in the open market with thousands of other hire companies nationwide. I hope that satisfies the question.

Hannah Crowe
Head of Investor Access and Co-Owner at Equity Development

I think it does. When we look across your peer group, and your operating loss versus theirs, what do you think you can do to operate more efficiently to match them and take advantage of the opportunities that the market is presenting?

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Okay. I feel like I'm doing a lot of the talking here, which wasn't my intention. I'm not looking out at the peer group and saying, what are they doing?

Hannah Crowe
Head of Investor Access and Co-Owner at Equity Development

No.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

That's not what is occupying my thoughts. We very clearly communicated our strategy in July 2023 and said, this is what we're going to do. We told the market what that was. Velocity, our strategy, was very much a strategy around revenue growth and operational efficiency, led by systems and data. We talked ad nauseam about things like AI and the benefit that we felt that that could deliver for this business. I think all hire companies, not just those of us that are nationally listed, we all have our own differentiating factors. We're all good at certain things, and we can all improve at certain things. Paul and I are proud of what Speedy Hire have delivered, the efficiency that that should give us, the opportunities that that should allow us to do a better job for our customers.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure we'll all go and have a look at what our competitors are doing and what that means at different points. Certainly, when you're listed, things get disclosed to the market. We're pleased with what we've done, the benefit that that should give us, and I think we've clearly demonstrated by the things that we're able to say, this is in, and it's done, and it's in the business, the effect we expect that to have.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

I think I would add the operational efficiency point. I think taking out cost reductions of over about GBP 5 million in a year. That should have an impact on operational profitability, along with our growth through our major contracts that we talked about on Pro and Thames Water.

Hannah Crowe
Head of Investor Access and Co-Owner at Equity Development

Okay. Thank you. Well, that is it for the questions today. That just leaves me to thank our audience and yourselves for attending today. A reminder for people, please fill in the feedback when I hit end the webinar. We look forward to an update in six months' time. A big farewell to you, Paul Rayner.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

Bye.

Hannah Crowe
Head of Investor Access and Co-Owner at Equity Development

Thank you for your contributions to Speedy.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

It's been a pleasure. Finance should always be fun, even at Speedy. Thank you.

Dan Evans
Dan Evans
CEO at Speedy Hire

Thank you, Hannah. Thanks everybody.

Paul Rayner
Paul Rayner
CFO at Speedy Hire

Bye-bye.

Hannah Crowe
Head of Investor Access and Co-Owner at Equity Development

Bye-bye.

Executives
    • Dan Evans
      Dan Evans
      CEO
    • Paul Rayner
      Paul Rayner
      CFO
Analysts
    • Hannah Crowe
      Head of Investor Access and Co-Owner at Equity Development
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