IRN NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2013
18
RENTAL SURVEYS
Europe:
Expectations for year from now
Europe:
Quarterly activity year-on-year
Europe:
Business conditions now
companies responded to
IRN’s
‘Rest of the World
Confidence Survey – see page 20.
The balance of opinion of fleet utilisation levels
almost doubled to +22.4%. Not quite 40% of
respondents reported improving utilisation and just
17% were seeing utilisation levels falling.
Higher revenues in Q3
Many rental companies were also seeing stable
or improving activity levels for the third quarter:
35.6% reported higher revenues and 42% stable,
with just 22.3% seeing lower revenues. The resulting
positive balance of opinion of +13.4% is the highest
since the second quarter of 2012.
There remains caution, however, illustrated by
the subdued findings on staff recruitment, with just
22% of businesses expecting to add staff in the final
quarter of this year. The vast majority, 65.7%, will
maintain current staffing levels, and just 12% will
reduce their workforces.
The resulting positive balance of opinion on
recruitment is +10.7%, which is slightly up on the
second quarter of the year but essentially the
same as most of the previous six quarters. You
have to go back to the final quarter of 2011 to find a
significant increase in recruitment plans.
While the aggregated figures for Europe point
to an overall improvement in business sentiment,
in truth this has been driven by certain markets
alone, notably the UK, the Nordic region and
Germany.
UK upturn
In particular, there has been a sharp upturn in
business sentiment in the UK, where there was a
remarkable +62% balance of opinion on current
business conditions – in fact, no UK company
reported worsening conditions at the end of the
third quarter (and this was even before the release
of positive GDP growth figures in the middle of
October).
UK companies were among the most optimistic
for business a year ahead – 71% expecting
improvements - and they were also among the most
likely to increase fleet investment by more than
10% next year, with 40% planning to do so.
Spain, France and Italy all reported a negative
balance of opinion on business conditions.
FIGURE 1
150%
100%
50%
0%
-50%
28.0%
43.4%
28.6%
23.8%
+7.2%
45.3%
30.9%
34.6%
-17.5%
48.3%
17.1%
40.2%
-22.3%
41.8%
17.9%
34.7%
-16.6%
47.2%
18.1%
29.5%
-7.2%
48.2%
22.3%
22.9%
54.3%
22.9%
19.4%
13.4%
47.7%
32.9%
FIGURE 2
200%
150%
100%
50%
0%
+26.9%
16.9%
39.3%
43.8%
+30.9%
19.8%
29.6%
50.6%
+8.4%
25.7%
40.2%
34.1%
+16.7%
22.6%
28.2%
39.2%
+0.6%
32.1%
35.2%
32.7%
Worse
Balance of opinion
Same
Better
Deteriorating
Balance of opinion
Same
Improving
Q
3-09
Q
4-09
Q
1-10
Q
2-10
Q
3-10
Q
1-11
Q
2-11
Q
3-11
Q
4-10
Q
2-13
Q
3-13
Q
4-12
Q
3-12
Q
2-12
Q
1-12
Q
4-11
Q
1-13
Q
3-09
Q
4-09
Q
1-10
Q
2-10
Q
3-10
Q
1-11
Q
2-11
Q
3-11
Q
4-10
Q
2-13
Q
3-13
Q
4-12
Q
3-12
Q
2-12
Q
1-12
Q
4-11
Q
1-13
Q
3-09
Q
4-09
Q
1-10
Q
2-10
Q
3-10
Q
1-11
Q
2-11
Q
3-11
Q
4-10
Q
2-13
Q
3-13
Q
4-12
Q
3-12
Q
2-12
Q
1-12
Q
4-11
Q
1-13
+39.6%
14.3%
31.9%
53.8%
+30.0%
13.2%
43.7%
43.1%
+36.2%
13.1%
33.7%
49.2%
150%
100%
50%
0%
-50%
-100%
FIGURE 3
+36.2%
21.4%
21.0%
57.6%
+11.1%
27.2%
34.6%
38.3%
+13.9%
26.1%
33.9%
40.0%
+3.7%
27.9%
41.1%
31.3%
+5.9%
30.1%
33.9%
36.0%
+1.8%
30.4%
37.3%
32.2%
+1.4%
28.8%
41.0%
30.2%
+13.4%
22.3%
42.1%
35.6%
Lower
Balance of opinion
Same
Higher
+0.6%
Multinational companies
remain among the most
confident with 50%
expecting to increase
spending by at least
10% next year (against an
average of 30% for
the whole of Europe).
¬
