Plant and tool hire firm, Speedy Hire, saw a drop in sales over winter.

The business, which has a depot in Gloucester, is usually kept busy over winter hiring out portable heaters to builders, but the milder weather meant less orders, as reported by The Times.

The company had forecast sales of £428m and profits of £20m for the year to the end of March, but sales were down at £420m.

Speedy Hire mainly rents out equipment to smaller construction firms and has also suffered from smaller firms going out of business.

The company expects things to improve during the current year, as it has signed multi-year contracts with a number of customers, worth a total of £40m to its annual turnover.

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