Jerry Brand’s Host makes a profit despite £4m fall in turnover

Host Contract Management has managed to turn a profit, despite its turnover falling by almost £4m.

Managing director Jerry Brand said that tight cost controls and the shedding of unprofitable contracts kept the firm in the black.

After making a profit of just £41,000 in the 2008 trading period, the firm’s like-for-like pre-tax profit rose to £209,000 for the 12 months to 31 December 2009.

Strong sales and improved purchasing were cited as key factors in the profit growth, even though turnover slumped by 21% to £14.5m.

Brand described 2009 as one of the toughest years he had experienced in 27 years, adding that Host survived it without making any redundancies to its core business.

“We made an assessment at the latter part of 2008 because we could see the storm clouds brewing. We focused on four areas: tighter credit control, value for money quality services, investment in sales and marketing, and retention of the right people,” he said.

Brand added that a growing trend for companies to re-tender contracts more often, expecting better quality for less money and sometimes making the contracts unprofitable, meant that Host was now taking a firmer line on marginal business.

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By Janie Stamford

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