PROFILE HUBBWAY PLANT & TOOL HIRE
At the Hubb of hire
Alan Guthrie visits long-established Hubbway Plant & Tool Hire, which serves a diverse customer base nationwide from its Northumberland headquarters.
Hubbway Plant & Tool Hire is an excellent example of a successful independent hirer that has steadily grown and adapted to meet market requirements. Operating from a single depot on a large four acre site in Cramlington, five miles north of Newcastle, its fleet ranges from power tools and consumables, to excavators and telehandlers, and it serves customers throughout the UK.
Nick Hubb became MD ten years ago.
The origins of the business date back to 1965, when founder, George Hubb, established a car sales and repair shop in the colliery town of Ellington, on the Northumberland coast. Hire was added in 1968, when work began nearby on constructing the Lynemouth Power Station and smelting plant. “Workmen would come into the garage, asking if we knew of a
supplier of tools and equipment,” said Nick Hubb, George’s son, who is today MD of the business. “It was a rural location and my father, realising there was no other hirer nearby serving this busy mining area, started offering plant and equipment, gradually assembling a fleet ranging from Kango breakers to Beaver skid steers. Car and Land Rover hire was also added to meet as many requirements as possible, and the customer base steadily expanded.”
Focusing on strengths
The gradual decline of coal mining activity, and the recession of the 1990s, led to a re-appraisal of the many-faceted business. “People didn’t really know what we specialised in, and we needed to focus on our strengths. In 1999 the vehicle hire business was sold in order to concentrate on hire,” said Nick, who joined the business in 1992 as an apprentice plant fitter, becoming MD in 2001, with George taking on the role of Chairman. “One of our main aims was to diversify the customer base still further. One of our main clients had been a utilities contractor that undertook a considerable amount of work for BT in our region. After four successful years, they dropped us almost overnight in favour of a national hirer, which was a substantial loss of
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hire business.We vowed never again to be in a position where one client represented such a high proportion of our turnover.
“We also recognised that we were in a remote location and would benefit from being nearer to Newcastle. In 1999 we sold our Ellington site for housing development and bought our premises in Cramlington, giving us a much more visible location with good transport links and plenty space to add equipment. Today we serve customers in many markets, such as ground clearance specialists, civil engineers, wind farm contractors, national parks, builders and homeowners.We have never differentiated between ‘tools’ and ‘plant’, simply aiming to supply everything a customer might require. We never want to say no to any enquiry.”
The diverse fleet encompasses power tools from suppliers such as Bosch, Hilti and Husqvarna, excavators from 1 to 20 tonne including Yanmar, Takeuchi, Case, Hitachi and Doosan machines, Manitou telehandlers, Hydrema rear tip dumpers, and lighting towers from ArcGen Hilta and Amida. “We have also tried to identify niche market requirements, such as tractors and vac tanks for on-site dust suppression, 25m roto-telehandlers, 8 and 13 tonne excavators with power-tilt rotators, and we will supply equipment like this throughout the UK and Europe.”
Fleet investment
The company continues to add to its fleet. It spent approximately £750,000 on new and replacement machinery in the first six months of 2011, and a similar investment is planned for the second half of
Hubbway’s fleet encompasses a broad range of tools and equipment.
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