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Executive Report: Ready to roll Following a management buyout, portable accommodation specialist Rollalong Hire plans further expansion in the construction and event industries. Alan Guthrie reports. Rollalong Hire serves the portable accommodation market nationwide, but the company believes its success has been due to maintaining a local focus when dealing with its many customers throughout the construction and event industries. “As well as our head office in Wimborne, Dorset, we have seven regional hire centres in Birmingham, Chertsey, Glasgow, Gravesend, Mansfield, Newcastle and Port Talbot,” states Managing Director, Neil Hickton. “Staff have thorough knowledge of their local markets and are able to establish and maintain closer links with our customers than would be possible if we used a single, national call centre. Every outlet is a one-stop shop offering all portable accommodation products.” Following a management buyout in June 2006, Rollalong Hire has embarked on a programme for further growth. The business, which dates back to 1968, had previously been owned by organisations with varied industrial interests, including Hanson plc, but it is now able to plan its own destiny more clearly. It is steadily adding to its fleet of approximately 4,000 units and is reducing its average age. “We offer a full range for the construction industry, including toilets, showers, canteens and offices, sourced from several suppliers,” states Neil Hickton. “Anti-vandal specification units are particularly in demand. Welfare units are even more specialised and we again buy from a number of manufacturers, with road-towable GenQuip (www.genquip.net) Groundhog mobile units, as well as static Groundhogs. We also have mobile units from Elstons (www.elstons-ltd.co.uk), including solar powered and battery powered models.” All are designed to meet Health & Safety Executive recommendations for on-site welfare facility provision, offering toilet and washing facilities, drinking water, areas for changing and drying clothes, and a place for resting and eating. “Demand for the mobile welfare units is simply phenomenal. As well as the construction industry, we receive many orders from local authorities who have very limited capital resources and need to hire. They particularly like the solar and battery powered versions because they are quieter, environmentally friendly and can in some cases be financed from specifically allocated ‘green’ funding from central government.” Approximately 25% of business now comes from the events market, which the company began targeting five years ago. Products offered include toilets, showers, changing rooms, hospitality suites, ticketing kiosks, offices and first aid booths, all of which are made to the company’s designs and specifications. The fleet also includes toilets made by Shorelink International (www.shorelink-int.com). Rollalong
Hire
also
earlier
this
year
acquired
the
Essex-based
business
Elegant
Toilet
Hire,
Rollalong Hire has an impressive client list. It supplies all temporary facilities for the Farnborough International Air Show in a contract recently renewed for until 2012. It also provides toilet facilities along the course of the London Marathon and at the finishing point, and is the supplier of offices, accommodation and other facilities used exclusively by staff and performers at the Glastonbury Festival. Neil Hickton has firm plans for further growth. “We want to establish five more depots within the next three years, and the first of these could be ready by the end of 2007. We will be recruiting dedicated staff with the necessary local expertise, who can develop strong links with our customers and maintain the levels of service we pride ourselves in.” • T
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2300 Executive Hire News › Archives › July 2007 › Executive Report › Ready to roll
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