Zenith has reported strong interim results as its fleet surpassed 150,000 units for the first time.

Tim Buchan, chief executive officer at Zenith

The figures for the first half of the year ending 31 March 2022 show that income and operating profits are ahead in each of the firm’s core divisions: Corporate, Consumer And Commercial.

Within the Corporate division, the order book is now at a record level after a sustained period of strong demand and demand has also recovered on the rental side following the easing of government restrictions in the year, although supply chain challenges are ongoing.

Similarly, Zenith reported that in-life services within Corporate have shown strong recovery, bringing activity almost back to pre-Covid levels.

Negative impacts have also been more than offset by Zenith’s performance in disposing of end-of-contract vehicles on the back of substantial increases in market prices during the course of 2021.

In the Commercial division, the integration of the trailer rental and fleet services businesses acquired in 2020 has progressed well. Customer demand across a range of sectors, including distribution and logistics, home shopping, parcel delivery, cash in transit, and construction and infrastructure-related services has remained particularly high, delivering record utilisation of Zenith’s trailer rental fleet. The business has also continued significant investment into mobile service units and expects to see further progress in customer service and operating performance through the remainder of the year.

And in the Consumer division, the ZenAuto personal contract hire (PCH) business has reached a total of 8,000 vehicles on the road, an increase of 84% year-on-year, whilst the order book has gone from strength to strength. The business has also launched a used PCH proposition and unveiled its first nationwide, television marketing campaign during the period.

Across both the corporate and consumer side, take-up of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) continues to accelerate – they now account for 17% of the car fleet and 79% of current orders within salary sacrifice. The BEV order book and Zenith’s ongoing initiatives to help customers switch to zero-emission vehicles is also expected to transform the fleet in the near future.

Zenith also continues to advance its sustainability strategy. It’s signed up to the EV100 global declaration and has committed to the Science-Based Targets (SBTi) initiative – said to be the only UK fleet company to have done so.

Tim Buchan, chief executive officer, said: “I’m delighted that Zenith has continued to go from strength to strength, delivering solid results and significant growth across all divisions despite challenging market conditions.

“Alongside these results, we’re also proud to have accelerated our mission to eliminate tailpipe emissions from the UK vehicle parc. Zenith has seen growth across all three of our core divisions and backed this up with meaningful environmental commitments, signing up to the EV100 declaration at COP26, and adopting our own SBTi commitments. These actions, together with our strong performance, further demonstrate how profit and purpose can coexist.

“Whilst we anticipate continued short-term challenges in the automotive sector and the potential of further restrictions related to COVID-19, combined with working from home again, Zenith is well-positioned for the remainder of the year.”