Staffordshire hire and fleet management firm Prohire has taken initial steps to appoint an administrator.
The company applied to the court this week, notifying its intention to appoint insolvency experts.
The application was lodged on 25 June.
Prohire had not responded as of the time of publication. Still, Motor Transport understands there has been a scramble among some operators to secure vehicle availability and to ensure that their fleet vehicles are being inspected in line with their operator licence obligations.
The last available set of accounts for the business showed that turnover had increased by £8.5 million in the year ending March 31, 2024, to £52.9 million.
It attributed this mainly to the annualization of prior-year and current-year contract hire new business secured.
However, pre-tax profits decreased to £414,000 from £1.6 million in 2023, and the company made an overall loss of £ 132,000 for the financial year.
Operating profits fell by over £225,000: “as the annualisation of revenue benefits of new business wins were eroded in the short term by an increase in fleet age profile pending many large customer fleet refresh programmes in 2025”, Prohire said in its business review.
Inflationary pressures also affected its margins.
“In the year ending March 2025, we forecast up to a third of our contract hire fleet will reach the end of its current fixed rental periods,” it added.
“With the limitations on the availability of new vehicles in the market starting to ease, we are focused on updating commercial pricing to current market conditions for these expiring vehicles and addressing the short-term service, maintenance and repair network cost pressures.”
With more than 90 staff, Prohire offers nationwide commercial vehicle rental and long-term vehicle contract hire, along with fleet maintenance, accident repair management, and fleet compliance services to customers across the UK.
