Vp sees upward trend

24 July 2020

There was positive news yesterday from Vp Chairman Jeremy Pilkington during the annual general meeting of the company, whose businesses include Brandon Hire Station.

Speaking at the event, which was held by webinar for social distancing reasons, he said that, at the lowest point of the Covid‐19 lockdown in April, “our revenues were running at around 55% of normal levels. In response, we mothballed a number of locations, furloughed employees and initiated a range of other cost saving measures.

“I am very pleased to report that revenues are now running at over 80% of prior year levels driven by increased demand from our core end markets.

Bringing furloughed employees back  

“As demand has returned, over two thirds of furloughed employees have now returned to work and many of the mothballed locations have re‐opened. We expect this trend to continue over the coming months,” he continued.

Mr Pilkington added that activity in infrastructure, house building and construction markets is “positive and improving”, but some areas such as the civil engineering sector have been slower to recover. “There are early signs that AMP 7, HS2 and Hinkley Point projects may lead the way in this regard.”

He said that cost management practices had reduced debt by £22m since 31 March, to £138m at the end of June.