A VAN hire company which this week announced 150 new North-East jobs today (November 1) revealed it is on track to double year-end revenue from its retail hire division to £4.4m.

Northgate Vehicle Hire, which is headquartered in Darlington, has seen a surge in business from its consumer offering, as well as a 312 per cent year-on-year increase in website bookings.

The firm said the rise in revenues are a as a result of increased demand from members of the public looking for van hire for personal use, as well as standardised pricing, which was introduced throughout all of Northgate’s UK depots earlier this year and which the firm believe has made it more competitive.

The company’s retail hire offering means that members of the public can walk into any Northgate depot and hire a van without having a business account, which it believes has increased accessibility for customers. Northgate also introduced a new loyalty scheme earlier this year, whereby customers can hire a vehicle for free after receiving five stamps.

Jonathan Pearce, marketing manager at the firm, said: “We re-launched our retail hire offering in January and, since then, it has quite literally gone through the roof.

“Our customers have access to extremely competitive rates and, as a company, Northgate is becoming more associated with retail hire, in addition to our better known ‘complete fleet solutions’ for businesses.

"We’re all set to be 100 per cent up on the last financial year and can only anticipate further growth in this area as we approach 2013.”