Helphire rewards bosses after profits rise
Bath firm Helphire has seen its profits more than quadruple, just months after laying off hundreds of staff in the city.
In a trading update for the year ended June 30 published today, the company revealed its adjusted operating profit had risen from £4.7-million in 2009 to £21.4-million.
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Helphire's headquarters at Pinesgate, Bath
That profit has been made despite revenues falling by £70-million to £304.2-million and after “provision for management incentive payments”.
The company said the incentive payments for bosses were for “continued delivery of the turnaround plan of a smaller but more profitable business”.
The company, which provides replacement vehicles for motorists involved in accidents, has axed around 1,200 jobs, many in Bath, in the last year-and-a-half.
Chairman Richard Rose said: “This has been a significant turnaround situation and I am delighted with the progress demonstrated by these performance indicators.”
The unaudited figures show that the Lower Bristol Road-based firm spent £13.2-million in one-off restructuring costs in the year up to June, including redundancy payments and reorganisation expenses.
It has cut its costs drastically. The cost of its overheads has dropped £42.3m in the six months to the end of June compared with the half-year period to December 2008, which was the period immediately before its restructuring programme began.
The firm has paid down almost a third of its debt over the past year. Its total net debt now stands at £165.3-million, a reduction of £77.5-million since last June.
The trading update states: “Since the interim management statement on May 5, the group has successfully continued to execute its previously outlined recovery plan.
“Helphire expects its results for the year ended June 30 to show a strong recovery in performance as a result of the plan and to be in line with expectations.”
Helphire is closing its call centre in the city and concentrating such work in two offices in the north of England, although the firm insists its headquarters will remain at Pinesgate.
The company’s restructuring programme has been broken down into three phases - ‘Focus, Drive and Broaden’ - with the firm about to enter the second.
The report intimates that a major contract is just round the corner, with letters of intent having been exchanged with a “significant and recognised” financial services brand.
But the firm says it continues to be wary.
“We are cautious about current trading as high petrol prices and economic uncertainty may be a contributory factor to fewer road miles being driven,” explained the statement.
“This backdrop, coupled with the recent period of dry weather, has lowered the number of accidents currently being referred.”
A preliminary announcement of Helphire’s audited results is planned for October 1.
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by CJ, Bristol
Tuesday, August 03 2010, 5:10PM
“I think that since the pre-Xmas debacle of Nov 2007, the savvy ones among us knew what was coming. Certainly take the point though that salary-wise, alternatives in the area have been scarce, so some may have had little choice but to hang on.
From a personal perspective, though, I'm glad that so many senior figures got their comeuppance.
The day that Peter Franks' email burned into those 700 inboxes, was a day when my mood oddly enough altered from the humdrum to the blindingly ecstatic. I cannot describe the hilarity it generated among my rather select group of peers, it was an entertaining piece of narrative.
And hearing about certain senior people having to go home in tears, made the £2k reward seem more deserving if they'd added a couple of zeros and sent it to Franky himself.
17th July 2008 is Helphire's 'Where were you when Kennedy got shot' day, such is the notoriety.
Shame nobody paid extra up front to take out a Reputation Damage Waiver!”
by d, Bath
Monday, August 02 2010, 4:07PM
“im not having a go at anyone but honestly we all knew it was coming we were warned enough , as for jobs in Bath you are totally right its really hard , and as for different departmants getting better pay outs thats just wrong i worked there 6 years and had some really good time there its just a pity the bosses got greedy and forgot that the key to a sucessful company is goo loyal Workers , treat the right and they will do right by you !!!!!!”
by Virgil, In a better place
Sunday, August 01 2010, 9:50PM
“I'm not here to moan about the directors bonuses, whether you think its right or wrong it happens in every Company up and down the UK. You can't fight or change it!
My main gripe about Helphire is the ludicrous and unjustified bonus they have stumped up for the notorious Collections department, I have first hand experience of this department as well the others - when I was there they got through 4-5 managers in under 5 years, everyone was constantly moaning and there was just a general 'can't be bothered' atmosphere. I will admit that there was the odd one or two who were good at their jobs and just got on with it. On the other hand you had the 2 operations departments who were constantly under the cosh, with no incentives and had to work evenings and weekends! But was there any moaning???
Not sure if it is wise of me to put the actual figures on this public domain but all I will say is that someone who worked there for 4 years (like me) would have walked away with around £4000 pre tax, probably enough to pay for my rent and bills for 2-3 months. A Collection handler who has only been working there for just 2 years can potentionally walk away with a cool £25,000! Oh, and i forgot to mention that they also have the added advantage of having an extra 5 months employment with the Company than the other departments.”
by J, HH
Sunday, August 01 2010, 9:01AM
“D "HMMMMMMMM i think anyone who stayed til the end had Enough time to look for another Job"
Have you looked on any job site for places in Bath? The only jobs going are in southmead shopping centre where the pay 'meets the minimum wage'. Im currently on just under 10 an hour, so I'd have to work a 70+ hour week just to be equal to what I'm on currently... I don't think so :)
Bath is going under, and the only thing job wise out there is retail, which has to be the worst paid job ever (store managers offered 16,000PA? ha). .”
by J, HH
Sunday, August 01 2010, 8:56AM
“CJ, your right sorry for being abusive, thou I just don't like it when you put down the staff that work there - I already know the downfalls of Helphire and everyone saw this coming a long way off, I even got warned about 2 years ago to the day to leave that company as it would be going under soon.
The main point is, this was one of Baths biggest employers (and at the time employed quite alot of people from Bristol?) its going to be putting alot of people out of work, with only the bare minimum of payouts. Only reason I just a letter instead of my name is because if I wanted to express my opinion about the company openly and it got back I'm pretty certain I'd be the 2nd most wanted person after the obvious number 1 :P”