June 2009



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June EHN issue

Executive Report

Executive news
Taking our industry's pulse
Brandon re-builds Constitution
More from Midland
A 'Who's Who' of hirers
HAE achievers
Dazzling array
Absolute conviction
Innovation on show

Market Report: Sawing & Cutting

"People are still buying"
Latest products

Profile: SHC Hire Centres

Model of success

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Welcome to our good news issue

City News

Speedy counts the cost

Crosshire

On the move at last

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Executive Hire News › Archives › June 2009 › Executive Report : Taking our industry's pulse

Executive Report : Taking our industry's pulse

EHN talks to independent hirers throughout the UK and Ireland to see how their businesses are performing in the challenging economic climate.

John Macpherson, Director, Alloa Tool Hire
"Business remains good. We are not particularly exposed to the homebuilding market and we have seen a number of one-man band type businesses being formed by construction workers who have been laid off, realise they won’t easily get a similar job, so they are effectively creating their own employment.
A lot of people in our area are adding home extensions, converting garages, building conservatories and landscaping their gardens, which creates hire demand. We are adding to our fleet accordingly, and recently bought a new 1.5 tonne Volvo mini and a 1 tonne Hi-Tip Wacker Neuson dumper."

Michael (right) and Rory McCarroll, Owners, McCarroll Plant Hire, Ballymena
"We are not breaking any records at the moment, but business could be a lot worse. A major factor in our area has been the weather: it was so wet in the early months of the year that builders couldn’t make any progress. However, we serve a varied customer base and there is still a lot of DIY activity. We find that some builders who have been laid off are starting out on their own and doing local jobs, creating demand for cut-off saws, breakers and the like, as well as for our mini excavators from 0.5-8 tonne. There are always pockets of activity you can find.
We continue to add to the fleet. Following the Executive Hire Show, we bought a plasterboard lifter from Sumner Manufacturing, and a Shifta conveyor from Mace Industries. We flew over to SED last month and placed our order for the Syrinx program on the Higher Concept Software stand. We have been considering switching from our paper-based system for some time, and Higher Concept stood out in terms of the product and the people behind it. We hope to go ‘live’ in July."

John Morrissey (right) of Xpert Hire & Sales, Naas
"Hire activity in Ireland has slackened off from our account customers, but we have seen a significant increase in over-the-counter hire and sales. We have added a lot more landscaping and gardening equipment to our fleet this year, and we have also purchased the first Dustcontrol Air Cube to be offered for hire in Ireland, following our visit to the Executive Hire Show.
In addition, we have extended our range of powered access platforms and aluminium scaffolding towers. Brandon’s closure of its depot in Naas, which was located on the same business park as us, has also made it possible for us to seek a sensible hire rate for our plant and equipment.
Although there is a lot of gloom and doom in the national economy, our potential customers are seriously put off any outdoor work due to the terrible run of bad weather so far this year. This is a major factor in the fall off of business that we are all experiencing."

Mike Hodgson, MD, Hodgson Tool Hire, Burscough
"We have been really busy since February. Easter came at just the right time, being earlier than last year and the fine weather encouraged homeowners to hire equipment for gardening projects and maintenance work. The DIY market is strong because people are not moving house and they are improving their existing homes.
Business also remains steady with small builders and tradesmen. All nine of our Kubota micro and mini excavators are out on hire at the moment, and it is the same with our Thwaites dumpers. We took delivery of a new Genie road-tow access platform recently, and it was hired the same day. Our second branch in Ainsdale, near Southport is similarly busy.
We also recently increased our transport fleet with the addition of a Ford Ranger pick-up, bought through the Bolton-based Gordons Ford dealership. We saw the company at the Executive Hire Show and clinched the deal a couple of weeks afterwards. We now have four vehicles of different makes and models. The Ranger is a rugged vehicle that will help us cope with the extra business being generated by the Ainsdale depot, and having to move equipment between our two locations. "

Peter Lucas, Managing Director, Lucas Tool Hire, Llandudno Junction
"Business is pretty good at the moment. We are a diverse operation, offering hire, sales and servicing - we have two workshop technicians, one for electrical products and the other handling petrol machines, and they are flat out. People want to maximise the life of equipment.
On the hire side, a good indicator is the number of mixers, breakers, compaction plates and the like that we supply, which shows that things are being built. Demand was slow at the beginning of the year, but has really picked up recently. People aren’t moving house, so they are improving their existing homes. I think the weather is also a big factor. We normally hire a lot of gardening equipment, such as Midland Power Machinery’s Rover mowers and Sarp brushcutters. Many local people have big gardens and already the better weather - compared with last year - has brought us more business.
Our Kubota and Volvo mini excavators up to 1.5 tonne continue to be popular. We added them to the fleet three years ago and it has made me realise how much business we were missing by not offering them before. I used to think they would be expensive to run, but customers invariably hire a lot of other products at the same time. We bought petrol and diesel pressure washers from Brendon at the Executive Hire Show, and we have added to our fleet of Euro Towers access equipment. We intend spending a lot more this year."

Tony Pilkington, Director, TAG Tool Hire, Halifax
"My fellow Directors Alex Brownridge, Graham Bradley and I only officially opened for business in April, Alex and I having previously worked for Pennine Tool Hire. Although we have started while we are told the wider economy is struggling, we are confident that our business plan, experience, knowledge and contacts can only result in success.
We have obviously made a considerable investment in new kit for the fleet, ranging from Youngman Boss towers and Mace Industries’ Bumpa and Hoddi loading machines, up to Genie materials lifts. We have quickly attracted clients including DIY customers and large building contractors. There is always an opportunity to win business based on the quality of equipment and backup service you offer."

Dave Matthews, Director, Climate Hire & Sales, Alfreton
"As EHN reported in March, Wholesale Climate Hire has been launched as a brand of our parent, Hire Station, to cross-hire cooling and heating equipment on a national basis from our 13 locations nationwide. Although still in its infancy, it has generated a lot of interest from both local and national hirers.
They can see the benefits of re-hiring seasonal products and opening new revenue streams by offering more specialist products like our Avalanche water-cooled split air conditioning unit and Scudo/Jumbo heaters, where opportunities would have been lost before. The Avalanche has been a huge success. Its versatility means that the units have flown out the door from a hire and sales perspective. We had to double our order from the factory in Italy.
In April alone we opened more than 20 new accounts on the Wholesale Climate Hire web site - and this was without the increased summer demand for cooling products. Overall we have planned and invested in both equipment and marketing to make the most of every opportunity.
The long-range weather forecasts say it’s going to be a hot summer, and the law of averages says that we should not have three bad summers in a row."

Matthew Weymouth (right) and Graham Barnes of Great Yarmouth-based DIY Tool Hire
"Business is patchy - it is up and down like a yoyo, but we continue to invest. We visited the Executive Hire Show for the first time and bought a Workpoint AirBench for use in our own workshop. This is now installed and up and running. Having seen it at the Show, we have since purchased a Hilti DCH300 electric disc cutter with a dust collection system. Within the last week, we have also bought an Ausa D85AHA 850kg compact dumper to operate in tandem with our 1 and 1.5 tonne JCB minis.
We have also just won a contract to supply a utility company with six sets of Cat cable detectors, complete with the generator units and personal gas monitors. This contract is scheduled to last for nine months and it may be two years. We don’t normally deal with this type of customer because of the inevitable pressure on hire rates, but we believed that we could achieve a decent return over the contract period and so we decided to invest.
In normal times, we would struggle to get our day’s work done, but we are not as stretched as we used to, and would like to, be. We had looked at the opportunity to expand into the nearby town of Lowestoft, particularly as Speedy had closed the former Hewden outlet in the town, where we both used to work. We are not confident in the current climate to take this next step. However, we are trading successfully and making money."

Chris Clews of Priory Tool Hire & Sales of Southam, Warwickshire
"I had worked for a construction company for 13 years and felt that I had gone as far as I could. In January 2007, I established the business, having bought the tool hire fleet of Priory Plant, which comprised just about everything from wallpaper strippers to hydraulic breakers, so it was a ready made fleet for me to start with.
Within three months, I realised the market for mini excavators and we now operate a fleet of seven machines up to three tonne, most of which are Volvo units, the balance of which are the smaller 750kg Kubota K008 and a 1120kg zero tail swing U10-3. My most recent purchase is a Terex Hi-Tip compact dumper from distributor SM Plant Sales and a second hand mini to replace a stolen machine. We are doing good business with landscaping contractors and have recently added a Barreto rotavator, as well as a scarifier and a block lifter from The Hire Supply Company.
Whilst trading in March was really good 0 - 30% up on the same month last year - April was poor in that it was only as good as last year. Business is patchy and we never know what we are doing from one day to the next. What is affecting us most is that customers are taking longer and longer to pay."

Martin Burrell, Depot Manager (left), and Peter Thomas, Hire Controller, Blythewood Plant & Tool Hire, Leyton
"This depot, Blythewood’s fifth, opened in January and is ideally placed to service the Olympic Games site - we are a four minute drive away. We also serve local builders and cash customers with tools, PPE, mixers, consumables and access equipment. Compact plant and larger machines can be supplied from our Welwyn Garden City depot. We also sell things like tea, coffee, spoons - everything workers need on site.
It was a bit quiet for the first couple of months, but as a new outlet we knew it would take time to establish ourselves. Furthermore, as Blythewood is an in-house supplier to its parent, the construction company Doyle plc, we handle its local requirements and those of another subsidiary, Ibex Interiors.
We have 15,000ft2 of space and we bought a lot of equipment for the new fleet, such as Boss towers, Wacker high-frequency pokers, Hilti breakers and Makita drills. When we buy power tools we always consider the HAV ratings, as more and more sites are aware of vibration issues."

Francis Harrison, MD, Harrison Tools & Plant Hire, Godalming
"Business dipped sharply from November to February but it has definitely picked up since - not back to 2008 levels obviously, yet I am quietly confident that the trend is now upwards. We put a tight rein on capital expenditure early last year because we could see wider economic difficulties ahead, but we are making spending plans again. We have four mini excavators to replace soon, and I might buy another Avant Tecno multi purpose tool carrier.
Similarly, if any customer now says to me they are thinking of having work done like a house extension, I tell them to do it because I doubt if builders’ rates will go much lower now. We are fortunate in that we deal with smaller builders and tradesmen, although some landscapers have been affected by the decline in new homebuilding.
I am staunchly independent and proud of it. Our contacts will always be better than any local branch of a national competitor, and all the equipment in our catalogue or shown on our web site is readily available."

Andy Webber of Plymouth Tool Hire
"Since the article on our company in your December issue, we have been very busy. Our turnover in December was £27,000 and by April, it reached £47,000 - which was a record for us. The key to this increase is the quality of new people that we have recruited. Having left Speedy to set up Plymouth Tool Hire last year, we have taken on three experienced hiremen who were made redundant from the local Speedy depot in Pennycomequick.
We were in a position where we needed extra people, so we employed them. Tony Freeman works on the hire counter, Paul Curnow is our new sales rep and Keith Lilley is our part-time fitter. Paul, in particular, is doing well and has brought in new business. He drives around in our liveried Vauxhall Combo van and this has certainly raised the profile of the company. I have invested more than £30,000 in new equipment including dustless vacuums from The Hire Supply Company, a second Takeuchi TB106 1.5 tonne mini excavator, a Kubota 750kg K008 micro excavator, Lifton dumpers, single tool compressors and 5kVA generators. We buy as we need to. We also currently have three more minis on re-hire and I’d love to buy another new machine.
As a result, we are running out of room and we need new premises. If, God forbid, everything came back off hire, we couldn’t get it all in - nowhere near it. We are really, really busy."