While top U.K. rental company Speedy Hire lost money in the first quarter, the good news for the Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside-based firm is that the losses were far smaller than the previous year’s financial bleed.

Speedy Hire’s loss before tax was £22.8 million (about U.S. $32.7 million) compared to £71.1 million for the year-ago quarter. Revenues for this year’s first quarter was £35.1 million (about U.S. $50.4 million), a 27.3-percent decrease compared with the first quarter of 2009, when the total was £482.7 million.

EBITDA was positive at £8 million, compared with £49.2 million for the first quarter of 2009.

The company said Top 50 U.K. construction companies now account for 26.9 percent of Speedy’s revenues, demonstrating success of the company’s ongoing focus on gaining market share in major contractor business. Speedy announced new contracts with Spice plc and Wilmott Dixon Group, worth an annual £6 million, adding to the company’s recent deal with Galliford Try plc.

Speedy’s secured contracts now forecast to deliver about £280 million over their remaining terms.

Speedy said it has saved more than £80 million as a result of the cost-savings initiatives it has implemented since July 2008.

“The more stable levels of recent trading are encouraging, which may indicate that economic activity in our markets is bottoming out,” said Speedy chairman David Wallis. “But we are under no illusion that there remain many difficult months ahead. The short-term focus will remain on cash generation, whilst running the business as efficiently as possible in a demanding market. I am confident that we have adopted a strategy that will serve our shareholders well in both the short and longer term.”