Brandon Hire Station: Parent firm CEO cites ‘incredibly difficult’ situation as 400 jobs cuts expected
Yorkshire-based equipment rental firm Vp has announced that it plans to close around 60 of its Brandon Hire Station sites across the UK, leading to the loss of rouhgly 400 jobs.
The company told The Yorkshire Post that it had begun the consultations process for job losses, adding that those whose jobs are at risk have been “identified and told”.
Vp did not confirm how many staff would remain in its Brandon Hire Station segment, but said the company makes up its largest division by headcount.
The move will see Brandon Hire Station exit the consumer market, no longer serving retail and walk-in customers. The firm will instead focus on what it described as Vp’s “strategic” and business-to-business customers.
Anna Bielby, chief executive of Vp, said she believed it was “really important” for Brandon Hire Station to retain a national presence, adding that communications would be happening this morning relating to which sites would close.
Speaking on the job losses, she added: “It's an incredibly difficult one, as I’m sure you will appreciate, and a lot of work has been put into ensuring that we manage it in the easiest way that we can.
“I think all the people that work in the Brandon Hire Station division, they know they've been working against a challenging market backdrop.
“I think it's really important that we give a clear and concise message about what we are doing and why we are doing it, and for those people that are not affected, we need to put our arms around them and ensure that they are key to driving the business forward in the right way.
“For those colleagues that are unfortunately affected, we will be doing absolutely everything we can to make sure they're treated fairly and that we handle the process as sensitively as we can.”
The company cited a challenging general construction market and increases in employee costs as contributing reasons for the closures.
It said that its changes would reposition Brandon Hire Station as a “smaller, more focussed and profitable division”.
Vp added that it expected the changes to be “materially complete” by the end of the current financial year, adding that it expected expenses of around £22m in the current financial year from the cuts.
The company said payback was expected in around four years from the move.
The announcement also came as Vp saw its group staff costs rise by around £2m half-on-half.
Posting its results for the six months ending 30 September, Vp announced adjusted profit of £17.3m, down 18 per cent from £21m at the same time last year.
This came alongside revenue of £188.4m, down two per cent from £192.5m.
The firm also posted adjusted EBITDA of £43m, down nine per cent from £47m.
Vp said it had seen a “strong performance” during the period in its international segment, led by good growth levels in Ireland and Germany.
Ms Bielby said that the group’s rail division which had “been subdued for some time”, was “starting to move in the right direction”. She added that the firm expects its UK segment to return to growth in FY26 to FY27.
She said: “Were still feeling the effects of subdued market conditions, but we have seen upticks in key area such as infrastructure.
“What that means for the full year is that we are flagging the market still being difficult, and the need to successfully execute the plans for Brandon, but we’re holding our full-year expectations from a profitability perspective.”