Executive Hire News › Archives › September 2009 › Executive Report : "Fulfilling our potential"
Executive Report : "Fulfilling our potential"
Ignoring its obvious holiday attractions and racecourse, as well as the UK's biggest offshore wind farm, Robert Aplin visits Great Yarmouth solely to meet the founders of DIY Tool Hire Ltd.
Travelling to Great Yarmouth on a gloriously sunny morning in early August was a real thrill. From several childhood holidays, I know that East Anglia is a beautiful part of the country and it was good to be back. Arriving in Great Yarmouth, it also struck me that this was the most easterly town in the UK that I had visited to interview a hire company.
Apart from its location, what first attracted me to DIY Tool Hire Ltd was simply its name and the fact that two of the team had attended this year’s Executive Hire Show for the first time. You can’t help but be impressed as you arrive at DIY Tool Hire. It has a high profile position on the main road into the busy Gapton Hall Industrial Estate and its signage is clear to see from some way off. At the front of the 3,500ft2 unit is a good line-up of equipment available for hire, together with plenty of customer parking. The showroom and hire counter are well laid-out and feature a particularly large selection of consumables for sale. The facility also has a large workshop and fleet storage area.
DIY Tool Hire was established in April 2004 by Graham Barnes and Matthew Weymouth. Prior to this venture, they had worked together at Hewden’s Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft outlets since 1990. Graham has 25 years experience in hire, having originally joined local hirer Smiths Hire Centre as a driver in 1984. That company was subsequently taken over by Grayston Hire Services, which, in turn, was acquired by Hewden. At that point Graham became Manager of its Great Yarmouth depot, later becoming Regional Manager wIth responsibility for 12 outlets in East Anglia. Matthew originally joined Grayston as a YTS fitter in 1988 and went on to manage Hewden’s Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth depots. He left Hewden in 2002 to work for Shell Gas at nearby Bacton.
“Utterly frustrated”
“We were both utterly frustrated at Hewden and had thought about starting on our own for two years. We knew that we could do a better job free of the restrictions of working for a national company. We wanted the opportunity to fulfil our potential. We are on the counter every day and love dealing with our customers. We are honest with them and they know that equipment will be delivered on time when we say it will. There is always a friendly atmosphere in the depot and we are pleased that we attract male and female customers alike. Service and quality equipment are our main aims. Local contractors are prepared to hire from us and pay a higher rate because they know that they will get a better service than from a national hirer.”
Having found the premises at the end of 2003, Graham and Matthew fitted them out throughout the following March and opened for business in April. They also took out a mortgage to buy the freehold to the premises, stating, “we wanted to show our drive and long term commitment from the outset. We received a very positive response from former customers who actively encouraged us to start on our own.
“Our initial investment of £50,000 quickly went on Wacker plates, breakers and Youngman Boss towers, which have become our No. 1 product fleet. If we were asked for something that we did not have, we would buy it for next day delivery, rather than crosshire. It was a good selling point for customers to guarantee them new kit the next day.” Unsurprisingly with the name it has adopted, DIY Tool Hire also derives 25% of its turnover from consumable sales to the DIY market. “Great Yarmouth was one of Hewden’s Top Ten performing depots in the UK at the time and we believed that there was room for an independent hire company in the town.”
Buy on demand
The DIY Directors continue to buy on demand. In addition to the Hilti DCH300 electric disc cutter, an Ausa D85AHA 850kg compact dumper and six sets of Cat cable detectors, complete with the generator units and personal gas monitors for a specific utility contract, discussed in our June ‘Taking Our Industry’s Pulse’ series, it has recently added seasonal gardening equipment, a Rawl Fixings WW90CH cordless gas actuated fixing tool, a Marcrist DDM2 core drill and fence panels “as national hirers seem to have stopped offering these locally.”
Whilst repeating their June comment that business is still “patchy”, Graham and Matthew report, “July saw an improvement and there is a decent level of activity in Great Yarmouth. As a major holiday centre, we benefit from gas sales in the summer and refurbishment work to many local holiday camps in the winter. With many of these camps having record bookings as holidaymakers stay in the UK this year, there should be even more repair work this winter. As part of the town’s regeneration, it is also building a new deep-water outer harbour, which includes the construction of two breakwaters, the building of a new container terminal to facilitate larger offshore vessels and a new roll-on/roll-off ferry service to Holland.”
Now joined by experienced workshop fitter Dale Kemp, another frustrated former Hewden employee, and Darren Wells, their new man to the industry, the team are “as enthusiastic about hire as we were when we first started in this industry. We plan to double the size of the showroom area to enable us to further develop more sales, including new machine sales. We are relentless in our quest to be the best and treat every hire or sale transaction as though it is our last.” •
www.diytoolhire.com |
