TOM Vehicle Rental has seen its turnover grow 45 per cent in a year when its expansion into England gathered pace.
The Scottish firm added Leicestershire's Eurofleet Rental and Nottingham’s Charthire to its portfolio for undisclosed sums during the 12 months to March 31 this year.
The acquisitions helped revenue at the business grow from £98.5 million to £143.1m although TOM said it had also recorded solid organic growth from its existing operations.
Airdrie based TOM specialises in supplying commercial vehicles for sale or rental, fleet management, servicing and repairs.
It has a fleet of almost 9,000 vehicles and has plans to expand that to 16,000 by 2018 then to 18,000 by the end of the following year.
Annual accounts which are being filed at Companies House will show pre-tax profit in the most recent financial year was up 56 per cent from £1.6m to £2.5m.
Writing in the accounts the directors said the company had benefited from a strategy which was designed "to adapt to the challenges of the current market."
TOM sealed the two English acquisitions in November last year and followed them up by buying Citroen car and van dealer Alistair Fleming in the early weeks of this year.
The latter transaction added sites in Ayr, Kilmarnock and Dundee to the group’s burgeoning portfolio.
Robert Stewart, group managing director said he would be keen to add a rental offer at those sites in the future.
He indicated the business is still looking at ways to grow further which includes extending its geographic coverage.
Mr Stewart said: “Our intention is to further increase our fleet and national infrastructure.
“During the next 12 months we will continue to strengthen our business to prepare for further growth with our Yorkshire depot opening in Castleford [recently] and an expectation of opening in London very shortly.
“We believe our service proposition is industry-leading and we intend to make it available nationally.”
The accounts said around £99m was committed to fleet renewal in the financial year.
There was also more than £3m spent on new sites, IT infrastructure and property improvements.
Average employee numbers rose from 374 to 491 but those are now believed to be greater than 530.
The accounts note staff costs increased from £10.2m to £13.9m.
The business was founded by Jim Rafferty with his son James also a director in the business.
Caledonian Alloys co-founder Hugh Stewart came on board as an investor in TOM, and chairman of the company, in March 2010.
The company has made several acquisitions in recent years as part of its growth strategy.
That included snapping up the commercial vehicles business of John R Weir Clark and Glen Henderson, both of which specialised in the Mercedes Benz brand.
It also bought the Radmode vehicle rental business in Yorkshire during 2013.
Earlier this year TOM said it had rented a fleet of 34 Mercedes vans to tyre and exhaust specialist McConechy's. McConechy's was using the vehicles across its network ofbranches across Scotland and northern England, from which it provides a 24-hour emergency service to truck fleet operators.
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