Executive Hire News › Archives › November 2009 › Profile: M+S Hire Power : Business as usual
Profile: M+S Hire Power : Business as usual
Robert Aplin visits Twickenham to meet Paul Munkenbeck of M+S Hire Power.
It wasn’t a great idea to meet Paul Munkenbeck of M+S Hire Power (Twickenham) Ltd at 8am on a Monday morning. His premises on the Hampton Road were heaving with contractors collecting their kit for the week’s work ahead. A long line of vehicles waiting to be loaded on the road outside was hardly helping the local traffic flow.
According to Paul, “it’s always like this dealing with the larger contractors in the first hour. There is always a rush for access towers, and plant like mini diggers, power barrows and hydraulic power packs. They will pick up their kit from us and then go on and collect materials. These larger contractors plan their jobs ahead and, as they know me so well, they will even phone me on Sunday to tell me what they need, so that we can get them off to a flying start on Monday morning. It’s things like this that make the difference.”
By mid-morning, as I hovered around the depot waiting to talk to Paul and his wife, Jaime, there was still a constant flow of customers collecting and returning kit. Paul obviously knows most of them personally, judging by the good-natured banter constantly bandied about.
Target market
Since its formation in October 1977, M+S Hire Power has always been based on the Hampton Road in Twickenham. The company was founded by Paul’s parents, John and Penny, who saw hire as an emerging business opportunity. Their target market was domestic hire, offering equipment like tip-up mixers, petrol lawn mowers, strimmers, hammer drills and grinders. According to Paul, “they continued to develop the range to serve their market and thought that they had joined the big boys when they bought a Hiretech HT7 floor sander and edger. Incidentally, 20 years on, we still run one of those original machines.”
Paul Munkenbeck joined his parents business 16 years ago and moved M + S Hire into a wider market, dealing with contractors and small to medium sized builders. He also started to sell equipment to this enlarged customer base and moved along the road to larger premises in 1998. “Customers are used to visiting and buying equipment from us. When they come in to buy, they see other smaller equipment, like consumables, in the shop and will buy these items as well. As most of our suppliers offer 24 hour delivery, if a customer needs equipment immediately, we will hire it to them free of charge and buy the machine for next day delivery. We buy good quality kit, which will last. We buy it once and buy the best.
“We offer the majority of power tools for sale and buy all our Makita, AEG and Hitachi tools from Safety & Electrical Products (SEP), which also supplies our PPE. “It is one of the most reliable companies that we deal with. If I need rigger gloves tomorrow, they will supply 100 pairs overnight, branded with our name on the packets.”
Adding larger equipment
In recent years, Paul has been adding larger equipment to the fleet, as the demand for smaller tools has fallen away. In addition to wet cutting diamond rigs, he has invested in 5 kVA silent generators from Pramac. “In this affluent area, where house prices didn’t fall, they just went up more slowly, domestic customers were organising small outdoor events and were asking us to run lights, a PA system and, even, a tea urn. Our standard 3.5 kVA sets were not powerful enough and were noisy. The new units are a superb piece of kit.
“We have also bought Belle’s BMD 500 mini dumper on a loading ramp. In the application we were asked to provide a solution for, we couldn’t get a skid steer loader round to the back of the house, so we provided the Belle unit. It removed the slabs better than a wheelbarrow and works at a proper fast walk, whereas most power barrows are slow.
One of M+S Hire’s latest additions to its fleet is a Bavtrak concrete crusher from Digbits, bought five months ago. “The machine is proving popular on landscaping jobs like driveways and patios where you can re-use the concrete and base.” In response to a request from a local landscape contractor, Paul has removed the sliding safety cover on the machine and added an open hopper in order to speed up the feed.
M+S Hire is another hirer that will re-hire from a trusted local competitor. “We have worked with Beaver Tool Hire in St. Margarets, Richmond for 15 years. They are honest, reliable and treat us well. We try and support each other as best we can and will even lend each other certain items. People must help each other - this gets you long term relationships. These are worth far more than those that burn brightly for a couple of months.
Monthly turnover increasing again
Critical of the national press that “talked us into this recession and sapped our confidence,” Paul reports, “monthly turnover has been increasing steadily, not dramatically, since April and confidence is creeping back. We are still trading 15-20% below the levels of summer 08, but we are optimistic that we are moving in the right direction. Projects that were cancelled last winter are now re-opening and I now feel safe enough to invest again.”
Paul and his wife Jaime, a New Zealander, will be setting off to Australia at the end of this month for a two month adventure holiday. Unlike, probably, most small businesses, Paul is more than happy to leave his team in charge. “Glenn Bridges will manage the operation whilst we’re away. Glenn has been with us for 10 years and has done every job in the company as he has worked his way up. I trust him implicitly. Similarly, Ian Wheeler has been with the company for 22 years and does everything in the workshop. He instinctively knows what is wrong with any machine. You can’t buy his knowledge. It will be business as usual at M+S Hire as I know that it will be in good hands whilst we’re away.” •
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