It was a time to cash in
The 1980s was the decade in which manufacturers and suppliers really began to realise what an important industry tool hire had become. More significantly, it was the decade in which tool hirers started to expand the ranges of equipment in their hire fleets, as well as their branch networks. HSS were the leaders in all
aspects of the business, above all in branch expansion and, by the end of the decade, had consolidated their position into that of unassailable market leaders.
With hindsight, it is clear
that we, at Brandon, put too much emphasis on efficiency and consolidation, rather than striking out more boldly with a proper plan for national coverage.We gained a reputation as one of the most efficient and well-run multi-branch tool hire
companies in the country - probably second only to Torex, indeed, perhaps their equal! The 1980s began with a considerable downturn in the economy when Geoffrey Howe, perhaps the best Chancellor of the 20th century, had to instigate policies to repair the damage of nearly two decades of socialist fiscal mis-management, exacerbated by the worst Tory Prime Minister of all time who intervened from 1970-1974 between the two socialist regimes of Wilson and Callaghan. However, because tool hire
• Brandon was perhaps the equal of the mighty Torex.
You cannot be all things in hire
It was not until the beginning of December 1989 that I became involved in hire by joining HSS as MD, so I was a very marginal player in that
decade.My predecessor,Ted Jones, had played a major role in achieving industry leadership for HSS by this time and he stayed on for my induction.Ted is a lovely man, but he was very protective of 'his boys', as he called them, and, indeed, 'his boys' fought like real brothers do - to the detriment of the business. It was not until Ted
departed that I was able to start implementing my own plans for HSS. Some of 'the brothers' had to go, but, from their number, I chose Brian Hartigan to be my deputy - a decision I never had cause to regret. My first Area Managers
meeting was in a Leamington Spa hotel and there were so many people, some 40 or more, that we couldn't all fit into the room we had booked. The commemorative photograph showed the whole team on the hotel's grand staircase and we filled it from top to bottom.A year later at the same hotel,we were more than comfortable in the same room with about 20 of the original number surviving. This was not butchery for
its own sake, but I was convinced that we were heading into a recession, which indeed began in 1990, but which, by then,we were well placed to ride-out. Many of those early surviving managers were still with me 15 years later, when it became my turn to step down. At the outset, I was determined to improve our marketing.We sharpened our prices and ran a £10/week hire campaign on mixers, covering the margin loss by a hike in damage waiver from 5% to 10%.
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was still a young industry and people were still being introduced to its potential for helping their own businesses, trading was reasonable. In 1985, the economy started to roar ahead taking an exuberant tool hire industry with it and tool hire companies started to make serious profits. It was a time to cash in. Smaller companies sold out for pretty large sums of money; medium sized companies
We already had a product
brochure, but we upgraded it to the HSS Hire Catalogue, which, for perhaps three years, was unmatched by our envious competitors until they learnt that they could cover the cost with supplier contributions. You cannot be all things in hire. We elected to concentrate on the finishing trades and cash customers. We focused upon product ROI rather than high equipment utilisation and enjoyed high margins, but with lower utilisation and shorter hire durations as a result. Our subsidiary, PB Hire, did the opposite. In time, the incompatibility of these two
opposing strategies became
discussed mergers and floating on what in those days was called the Unlisted Securities Market (USM). Brandon and Torex considered a merger, but found that they had not fallen in love with one another, so both floated independently on the USM. Ashtead were the darlings of the plant hire industry, in general, and the USM, in particular, where they won the USM Company of the Year Award in, I think, 1988. Those sorts of awards are generally the kiss of death, and that was no exception in the case of Ashtead!
Brandon floated with great glee on 29 September 1989 as the decade drew to a close, unaware of how seriously bad the recession about to hit the country from 1990 to 1994 would affect it and the entire industry.
Brian Nathan, co-founder of Brandon Hire
irreconcilable - but that was in the 1990s and that's another story.
Lister Fielding, legendary former MD of HSS
• PHE Plant Hire Executive interviewed HSS’ Ted Jones back in February 1989.
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