“It is one of the gems within the business,” says Porter.

“The decision was long since made that it is a core business. The view from the main board is that it is part of the ‘helping Britain prosper’ mantra and it underpins Lloyds’s strategy.”

Under invest to grow, Lex Autolease has identified areas of opportunity where it believes it can increase business. It involves a mix of customers, channels and services.

Focus on commercial vehicles

SME, regional corporate and public sector, and large corporate sectors are the three customer channels targeted for growth. Channels centre on the commercial vehicle market while product expansion will come from personal contract hire.

“A lot of our growth this year has been driven by commercial vehicles, which is a reflection of our strategy, the economy and business confidence,” Porter says.

“Another driver has been the public sector, even though it is subject to the biggest challenges.

“We have won new business – including customers that have bought another business and integrated the fleets and from fleets moving from outright purchase to contract hire – and current customers have grown their fleets.”

Ultimately, Porter has “three boxes to tick”: shareholder, customer and colleague. Satisfy the latter two and the shareholders will naturally follow.

Outwardly, customers would appear to be the hardest challenge. A number of customers have raised concerns that Lex Autolease’s sheer scale makes it hard to offer service at a local level like some of its rivals.

However, Porter claims that Lex Autolease has sustained its customer service scores since the merger began, although he also admits that over the past 12 months the net promoter score (which gauges customer loyalty) has “taken big steps forward”. Its most recent rating is the highest since the integration.

“Also, 92% of customers are satisfied and would recommend us and that’s never been higher,” he adds. “My challenge is to use this as a springboard for the business.”

Ticking the colleague box has proved more testing.

The integration was tough on staff morale due to the merger of roles and resultant redundancies, although the figure was lower than anticipated. In addition, the speculation over whether Lex Autolease was a core business added to the problems.

Porter believes the company has now come through this difficult period. “It’s all done and we still have 1,350 people working across three sites,” he says.

It has resulted in a business with strong revenues, good margins and rising profits. And it remains by far the biggest leasing provider in the country, still double the size of second-place LeasePlan.