The rental specialist has moved from a network of 20 local individual brands to the development of the Northgate Vehicle Hire national brand, which is now operating as 12 business areas with more than 60 sites, covering the UK and Ireland.

The rebranding of the business to Northgate Vehicle Hire has now been completed with new signage across more than 60 locations, new vehicle livery on thousands of vehicles and the development and launch of a new website with online booking facilities.

A large part of the 60,000-strong fleet of mainly light commercial vehicles will now carry the Northgate Vehicle Hire branding, making it the third largest liveried fleet in the UK after BT and Royal Mail. The remaining part of the fleet is typically branded by long-term hirers with their own corporate livery.

Marketing Director, Ross Clarkson said: 'These changes are already delivering higher levels of brand awareness and increasing demand for vehicles both from our corporate and retail customers. We have also experienced higher levels of website traffic to www.northgatevehiclehire.co.uk. The rebranding to Northgate is being supported by the implementation of a single set of best practice processes offering customers more consistent levels of customer service.

'Northgate has long been the market leader in the UK and the move will enable the company to further improve its customer service and business efficiency.'

Mr Clarkson continued: 'We want to build further on the company's reputation and leverage further value from the Northgate brand as the industry leader which pioneered the development of flexible vehicle hire.'

Northgate's expansion to become the UK's leader in vehicle hire has been built on the local provision of service to SMEs, which the company says remains a fundamental part of its business model going forward.