Northgate hire interim finance guru

Jul 17 2010 by Iain Laing, The Journal

DARLINGTON-based van hire specialist Northgate has appointed Deborah Stevenson as its interim chief financial officer.

Ms Stevenson, a qualified chartered accountant and corporate treasurer, will take up her role from Monday reporting directly to the company’s chief executive. Northgate said: “It is planned that Deborah will lead the debt refinancing discussions.”

Ms Stevenson has worked in a number of interim senior finance roles during the last 12 years in businesses across the global manufacturing, logistics and business services sectors.

Northgate, which rents out vans in the UK and Spain, is close to completing a UK restructuring which will reduce its hire companies from 20 to 12 and bring them under a common brand.

The move aims to save £10m annually from next year and the business has also reduced its debts from £886m to £598m after raising £108m at the start of its financial year in a rights issue.

Northgate, which made a £195.6m loss at the height of the recession, reported profits of £9.6m after exceptionals in the year to April 30.