HSS promotes reasons for growth
30 September 2022
In its half-year results announced yesterday for the 26-week period ended 2 July 2022, HSS reported increased revenue of £159.9 million, up by 9 per cent compared to the previous period (£146.3m).
Profit from continuing operations before tax decreased slightly to £6.5 million (£6.8 million), although the prior year had included an additional week’s trading.
Steve Ashmore, chief executive officer, said that HSS continues to develop its digital technology-based hire platform.
Cash transactions are managed through HSS Pro, an interface rolled out for all account-based transactions in 2021. Additional functionality has been added to allow colleagues to fulfil enquiries for cash customers, including ID-checking and payment processing).
The company states that an extended re-hire range is available on its hss.com website, with the platform being developed to enable customers complete these transactions completely online. Currently being tested, HSS expects this to be rolled out in Q4 to drive up page views and conversion rates amongst trade and retail customers.
The company’s ProService platform is an interface designed to enable larger customers to manage and control their building services requirements on a single platform, including the procurement of equipment hire and other related services such as equipment sales, waste management, training and potentially other items.
HSS says ProService is being introduced with one of the UK's top 20 construction companies, which will use it within its procurement team.
It adds that software used by its transport teams has reduced average mileage per job by 12 per cent, reducing Scope one carbon emissions.
“Despite inflationary pressures and uncertainty created by the war in Ukraine, we have seen resilience across the broad range of end markets our business is exposed to,” said Steve Ashmore. “Whilst uncertainty remains, the construction output forecasts in the market continue to point to growth in 2023 and 2024.
“We are confident that should the outlook worsen, our flexible, low-cost business model and strong balance sheet puts us in the best possible position to outperform the sector.”
