Tiphook looks for rental lift
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by Karen Miles III The parent company of Central Trailer Rentco is predicting trailer rental customers will soon have to pay more for their equipment.
Tiphook chief executive Robert Montague says the company's trailer rental arm, CTR, will cash in on improved economic activity throughout Europe by raising rental rates.
"We are now -pressing hard for long overdue price increases and the initial response is encouraging. We expect to deliver further improvement," he says.
In the year ended April, CTR reported improved useage of its fleet-74% compared to last year's 57%—but an operating profit down 63% to £18.3m.
• City analysts say they cannot forecast when Tiphook will shrug off enough of its debt interest payments to be able to trade profitably.
The troubled company— which has now changed its name to Central Transport Rental Group—has been hit by overborrowing. During the past year it has sold its biggest asset, its container arm, to improve its bank balance. During the year, debt halved from just over 21bn to 2512m.
The sale has left it with CTR, which operates 25,000 trailers in nine European countries, and its rail wagon business.