AIRDRIE-based TOM Vehicle Rental has boosted its presence south of the Border with deals to buy two companies there.

The Scottish company, which offers sales, rental and fleet management services, is also ­closing in on another deal.

It is holding talks over the potential purchase over a vehicle dealership in Scotland, which may conclude later this month.

TOM has acquired Eurofleet Rental of Measham, Leicestershire, and Nottingham's Charthire in strategic moves to grow its presence in England.

It expects the deals to boost turnover by 10 per cent to about £110 million in its current financial year, which ends in March.

The purchases grow the company's fleet of commercial vehicles from 6500 to more than 8000.

They will result in 35 staff ­joining the North Lanarkshire business, taking its overall headcount to more than 450.

TOM is moving to centralise its operations in the region further to the deals with the opening of a new premises in East Midlands in six weeks.

The new site will serve existing customers of TOM, Eurofleet and Charthire in the area.

Commercial director Robert Stewart said: "These two businesses give us a stronger foothold south of the Border. They have got a clean asset portfolio, they have got an exceptional underlying customers base and it fits exactly with what we are doing in terms of our asset portfolio strategy."

TOM has expanded aggressively in the wake of the economic downturn, making five acquisitions in the past two years.

It made its first major move into England with the opening of a depot at Trafford Park, Manchester, and acquired the Radmode vehicle rental business in Yorkshire, last year.

Those moves followed its acquisition of John R Weir from Arnold Clark and Glen Henderson in Scotland the prior year, both of which specialised in Mercedes Benz commercial vehicles.

This year it plans to open a further four depots, with further acquisitions in the pipeline.

Director James Rafferty, a corporate lawyer and son of founder Jim Rafferty, is working on a potential deal which may conclude this month.

London is also on the company's radar as it looks to complete phase one of a national strategy for its vehicle rental business.

Mr Stewart added: "Thereafter, we have other strands in the business where we will look to add to the core revenue streams of ­vehicle rental, vehicle sales, manufacture-based sales and fleet management.

"If there was a dealership up for sale then we would like to buy it if it ticked the boxes in terms of brand perception to customer, and also if we could support it through our rental business."

The latest deals are expected to swell turnover from vehicle rental to £50 million a year at the business, with the balance coming from vehicle sales and after sales.

The company is expected to unveil significant progress in turnover and pre-tax profits when its results for the year to the end of March, 2014, become available at Companies House.

Mr Stewart said: "It's fair to say we have grasped opportunities throughout the recession and whilst not always easy we are a "make it happen" business so we try to do exactly that.

"There are other opportunities we are looking at just now.

"Although they are in the early stages, we don't rule anything out until our instinct and the numbers tell us otherwise."