Executive Hire News › Archives › November 2008 › Profile: P.E.T. Hire : Passionate P.E.T.

Profile: P.E.T. Hire : Passionate P.E.T

Alan Guthrie visits P.E.T Hire in Crewe and discovers why the company was shortlisted for the 2008 Executive Hire Show Passionate Independent Hirers Award.

It is not difficult to find P.E.T Hire. Located on a busy main road close to Crewe town centre, the large logo on its impressive premises is unmissable. There are parking spaces for 30 vehicles and three entrances direct customers to different sections of the business. As Managing Director Carl Banks explains, the premises amount to 15,600ft2 of ground floor space, with an additional 7,600ft2 mezzanine level - a far cry from P.E.T Hire’s original location on the ground floor of a rented terraced shop half a mile away.

Carl’s late father, Paul, established the business in 1974 with his wife Christine. Previously a compressor salesman, he saw an opening for a tool and equipment hire company, and formed Plant Equipment Tool (P.E.T) Hire, serving local tradesmen and DIY customers. Business grew steadily and in 1976 larger premises were found in a disused bakery on the opposite side of the road, whilst retaining the original terraced shop as a power tool sales and repair outlet. Carl, aged 11, got his first hands-on experience of hire, working in the shop every Saturday from 8am to 5pm, earning 30p extra pocket money in the process (increasing to £3.50 on his 13th birthday).

Room for expansion

Further growth at the bakery site saw the company adding marquee hire, catering equipment and access towers to its fleet. In 1985, P.E.T moved to a former car showroom at its current site. This again gave room for expansion, adding mini skip hire (now discontinued). On securing a bus depot in an adjacent building in 1988, the company ventured into tube and clip scaffold erection.

“By this time I was 23,” recalls Carl. “On leaving school, I had trained as a graphic designer and worked in Germany for engineering companies. My father had tried to establish other hire outlets locally, with business partners, in Congleton, Tunstall and Whitchurch, but he could not find dedicated staff, so they were closed. He had considered selling the original P.E.T Hire business on his retirement, but I could see huge potential for it, and decided it was time for a career change.

“Renting premises had always drained the company’s resources, so I was determined to build up funds to buy a site outright. We expanded the fleet further, ploughing the profits back into the business and were very successful, building a loyal customer base. Indeed, we turned down an offer from one of the nationals to sell to them six months after I joined the business. We were soon bursting at the seams again, with no space for new kit. The car showroom and bus depot had given us the room we needed, but in a rather piecemeal format. So when an adjacent retail development was proposed in 2001, it enabled us to negotiate additional land and the roadside frontage for a purpose-built facility. “

In 2002, P.E.T built its current premises (not surprisingly, given his background, Carl did the drawings). The business continued trading from the showroom site whilst demolishing the bus depot, moving into the new facility twelve months later. The showroom was then demolished to create the car park.

“Any product on the planet”

Today, the tool and equipment fleet encompasses items like Makita petrol cut-off saws, JCB and Hilti breakers, Belle mixers, Alto mobile towers, Camon aerators, scarifiers and rotavators, Birchwood Razordeck and UGO towers, with a Timberwolf towed chipper being a recent addition. “We still repair a lot of customers’ tools and are authorised warranty dealers for Makita, DeWalt, Bosch, Hitachi and Metabo. Some large, local tool sales outlets even bring their equipment to us when in need of repair,” says Carl. “We have a dedicated tool specialist, who can repair virtually any product on the planet, as well as workshop technicians who will fix anything from a DIY customer’s two-stroke strimmer to a site manager’s diesel compressor or mixer.

“We stock a substantial range of consumables, from hi-viz workwear, nuts and bolts, hand tools, tarpaulins and work boots (250 pairs in 20 styles), to electrical cables, transformers from the Hire Supply Company, and Toolpak PPE and abrasives. Consumables are essential items for a hirer to supply. On some lines, if you bulk buy, say, ten items, you are in profit when you have sold two. We also supply Toolbank products so that, if someone needs a particular tool, they can see it in the catalogue and we can have it here next day. It is all about satisfying the customer.”

90% of P.E.T Hire’s business is with professional customers and large local factories, such as Bentley Motors, Mornflake Oats and Bombardier. Equipment is regularly delivered as far afield as Warrington, Manchester, Stafford and Chester, particularly the larger items like Promax tracked cherry pickers, Haulotte powered access platforms and Bobcat mini excavators up to 3 tonne. “We can beat the nationals because we do not have a minimum hire period for many machines, and we are flexible enough to turn equipment round quickly, getting the same item to several sites within one week.”

Last year, after further growth within the scaffolding division, this part of the business was re-located to dedicated premises a mile away, enabling further tool hire expansion. Event and catering hire equipment, including china, cutlery, chairs, tables, fridges and spit roasts, is kept on the mezzanine floor of the main Crewe premises and is moved in and out via a lift. Catering hire is run by one dedicated staff member, from taking orders through to cleaning off-hired items. This can also lead to the hire of equipment like SDMO and Stephill generators for marquees. P.E.T Hire’s annual turnover is approximately £1.2m, with an additional £0.5m from P.E.T Scaffolding. Transactions are monitored using inspHire software.

“Our policy has always been, ‘Never say no’. If you get the customer through the door and give them what they want at a competitive price, they will return; if you don’t, they won’t,” says Carl. “The backbone of our tool hire business is our staff of 15. Each is empowered to make their own decisions, and they form a dedicated team, from the hire desk to the workshop.

Honoured

“We were all honoured to be shortlisted for the Executive Hire Show Passionate Independent Hirer Award this year. It was great for us to be recognised in this way, as independents are all too easily overlooked. And visiting the Show was very valuable, resulting in us buying a Hiretech HT5 floor sander, our Timberwolf chipper and an Ammann vibratory roller.”

As befits a passionate hirer, P.E.T Hire continues to grow. “Our only challenge is, once again, space,” says Carl. “I want to expand our compact plant fleet and our powered access range. I remain totally positive about hire. I see myself still in this business 20 years from now, with my wife Babs to keep me on the straight and narrow as Office Manager. And we hope our three children will eventually join us in running the company, too.” •

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