Monday Interview: Private equity-backed Leeds vehicle rental company speeds ahead with growth plans

The focus has been very much of vehicle businesses recently with the growth of Global Autocare and the acquisition of Zenith by Bridgepoint for a massive £750m.

Clearly the market is buoyant, but how do you grow in such a competitive market?

Nexus Vehicle Rental is a growing Yorkshire vehicle business, which was started in 1999 and since then has grown through a number of acquisitions.

The brainchild of a Yorkshire entrepreneur, it was identified as one to invest in by the private equity world. In 2008 Livingbridge made a £9.5m investment and had a stake in the business until December 2015, when it was acquired by Bowmark in a £51m deal.

It employs around 100 from its base in Leeds and a site in Uxbridge, and for the past three years has experienced double digit growth, turning over £47.7m in its latest accounts for the year to September 2015.

Chief executive David Brennan came into the business in 2014 and has been spearheading the growth of the company, which has traditionally been a UK vehicle rental business, but has plans to grow geographically and deploy its technology platform that fulfils rental management services into other sectors.

We caught David, a self-confessed “car nerd” before he went on a well-deserved holiday.

“I came in to accelerate growth of the business. One of the things we’ve been working on is a technology platform with competitive pricing, like buying a book on Amazon. It’s an online portal providing vehicle rental to businesses in the UK,” he said.

The company has around 1,000 clients and has recently expanded into the HGV market, as well as vans and specialty equipment.

“We’ve basically been broadening out our assets so that we can accommodate every request from a lorry, a tractor or even an ice cream van.”

Clearly diversification has worked for Nexus, having reported double digit growth for the past three years.

“We want to stand out in the market and offer the choice of every single asset,” David said. “Businesses want a one stop shop solution, and this is delivered through our Iris technology. Our in-house technology team is the best in the world for vehicle rental.”

Brennan has the backing of Nexus’ private equity backers in his diversification plans, but this proves a double edged sword to other businesses who get PE backing.

“You hear lots of bad things about private equity houses,” said Brennan, “but I’ve had a completely different experience. They’re very thoughtful – as long as you deliver on targets they are very helpful in terms of strategic input and helping push the management team, as well as developing plans for what we can do next.

“We have three non-executives on the board. They have the right to ask questions and we have the right to run the business. It’s liberating – they’re focused on the right issues, they are strategy focused, consider risks which could derail the business, new technology out in the market.”

His main aim, he said, was to ensure the business remained in double digit growth every year, and although they have a strong reach geographically, Brennan insisted that Nexus remained a Northern business.

“The Uxbridge is an acquisition, our business is in the North and everything we do can all can be delivered through the Leeds business. Clients across the UK are happy to deal with us, happy to Skype, or have meetings to travel to.

“We can access talent in Yorkshire, all the way from apprentices to board level staff and there are some very successful business in the North. It’s all available in the Leeds region, and there’s opportunities to grow domestically and overseas, which we’re planning on taking.”