GLASGOW-based plant, tool and equipment hire company GAP Group is aiming to double its 1300-strong workforce and hike annual turnover from about £142 million to more than £300m over the next five years.

The company underlined its ambitions as it unveiled an asset-based lending facility of up to £220m to support its growth over this period.

This facility comes from four banks. The group is led by Royal Bank of Scotland, and includes Barclays, and US lenders Wells Fargo Capital Finance and PNC Business Credit. The new arrangement replaces a previous £75m asset-based lending facility from RBS.

GAP Group financial director Andrew Stewart revealed that GAP Group expected to record turnover of £142m in the financial year ending this month. The company achieved turnover of £118m in the prior 12 months.

Mr Stewart said pre-tax profits would be about £17m for the financial year ending this month, ahead of a budgeted figure of £16.5m and up from GAP Group's previous record of £13.5m in the prior 12 months.

He added that GAP Group would, on the back of the lending facility, be able to undertake capital expenditure of about £100m in the coming financial year to March 2016. About £90m of this would be in new plant, with the balance invested in information technology and vehicles.

Mr Stewart put GAP Group's capital expenditure in the year to March 2015 at about £45m.

Total capital expenditure of £500m is planned by GAP Group over the next five years. The company is anticipating property purchases of £50m over the next five years as it ramps up its network of depots, to include large-scale sites in strategic locations.

GAP Group joint managing director Douglas Anderson, who runs the business with brother Iain, estimated that the company had about four per cent of the plant and tool hire market in the UK, and that this made it about the fifth-largest player.

The company has more than 110 depots across the UK, more than 20 of them in Scotland, and has been diversifying in recent times into hiring out lifting and survey and safety equipment. It has also moved into hiring out "non-mechanical plant" such as fencing, crowd-control barriers, and road plates.

And GAP Group has created a welfare services division, which hires out toilets. The company has enjoyed success in winning contracts relating to events, for which it can supply the likes of toilets, fencing and barriers. And it has also expanded into hiring out vans.

Mr Stewart estimated that, in five years' time, about half of GAP Group's turnover would come from its new divisions, created to augment its traditional plant and tool hire business.

Citing GAP Group's 1300-strong workforce, nearly 390 of whom are based in Scotland, Mr Stewart said: "Over the next five years, that would double."

The company provided temporary fencing last year for Commonwealth Games venues and the athletes' village in Glasgow, and 38 miles of crowd-control barriers for road events.

GAP Group is opening about 10 tool and two low-level access equipment depots in London. Low-level access equipment includes small aluminium towers.

And it is investing heavily in opening 14 very large depots at key locations in the UK, two of them in Scotland, at Harthill in Lanarkshire and Elgin in Moray.

Gap Group was founded by Douglas and Iain Anderson's father, Gordon Anderson, in 1969. The brothers have been running the business since 1988.

Douglas Anderson highlighted major investment in infrastructure in the UK, citing the likes of major rail projects. He noted that about 60 per cent of GAP Group's business was infrastructure-related.

And he highlighted renewed buoyancy in the housebuilding sector.

Mr Anderson noted that GAP Group was winning more business because existing customers were busier.

Mr Anderson also highlighted the benefit to GAP Group from the recent tumble in oil prices.

He said: "In a 12-month period, at these oil prices we are going to be about £1m better off."

Mr Anderson said of the refinancing: "We have confidence in what we are doing. It is very gratifying for other people to share and validate that confidence by lending you lots of money."

GAP Group was advised on its refinancing by accountancy firm KPMG.

Bruce Walker, who led the advisory team at KPMG, said: "GAP is one of the most established and trusted brands in the UK plant-hire sector and, with its new facility, the company is well-positioned to grow and capitalise on a variety of opportunities in the future."

An initial £130m of the lending facility is being provided immediately, with the remainder to be accessed as required over the five-year period.