When the potted plants arrive in the lobby it's time to sell. Fans of Speedy Hire, the quoted tool hire group, hope the same does not apply to producing a trendy annual report.

Founding boss John Brown recently announced its 11th year of rising earnings with profits up 21% on last year to nearly £19m. The man from Merseyside has now unwrapped an annual report that features brown pseudo inter-office mail envelopes stuffed with uplifting messages such as "Grow the business", "Strengthen the organisation" and "Drive market share by employing the best". Only after these do Speedy's institutional investors, including Schroders, Gartmore, Prudential and Deutsche Bank, stumble on the real annual report. They may feel Brown, who started Speedy Hire with one depot in Wigan years ago, should stick to jackhammers and air compressors and leave the fancy stuff to Terence Conran.