UK Equipment Hire firm, Ashtead, announced it’s first quarter profits grew by a third.

Ashtead say pretax profit rose 35 percent to 11.9 million pounds ($18.3 million) on sales 8 percent higher at 239.1 million pounds in the three months to the end of July.

Ashtead operates in the United States and the United Kingdom.  The lions share of their profits and market is in the states, where they operate under ‘Sunbelt’.

In the UK they are household names, as ‘A-Plant’.

They deal in hire equipment hire ranging from plant to  tools.

Their Chief Executive, Geoff Drabble, said “Whilst end markets remain fragile, our strong performance in fleet on rent reflects the impact of the responsible correction in fleet sizes throughout the rental industry and increased outsourcing by customers, a trend we expect to continue.”

More sales and lower costs, gained by cost cutting have helped their success story. Their share price is currently 92 pence sterling.

This values the group at £445,000,000 .