MARKET REPORT LIFTING & SHIFTING
Kirsty Archbold-Laming and Lance Foster, fourth and third from right back row, with the SHS team.
Upwardly mobile
Although it serves a specialist market, Southern Hoist Services hires equipment to a diversity of customers, including a number of high-profile events. Alan Guthrie reports.
Dustin Hoffman, Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are among the more illustrious people who have set foot on equipment hired from Southern Hoist Services (SHS). That is because the business often provides equipment to move personnel, goods and materials at film sets, concerts and events such as the Cheltenham Festival and the Ryder Cup for installation in temporary structures, in addition to serving customers in the construction industry.
A building refurbishment project combining the use of passenger and goods hoists.
The business, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary in December, is located in Shedfield, to the east of Southampton. It is part of Reading-based Claude Fenton Plant Hire, which coincidentally marked its 50th year of operation in 2016. SHS dates back to 1992, when its late founder, Terry Barton, and his business
partner, bought Rope Plant Company, which ran a modest hire operation alongside engineering activities. The range was expanded to include goods hoists of up to 200kg capacity, ladder lifts and passenger hoists.
Director Kirsty Archbold-Laming joined in 1993, initially as a part-time office junior before planning to take up a place as a mechanical engineering apprentice to work on helicopters. However, she became fascinated by the hire industry. “Initially, it was just Terry and I running the business, but he was often out on site and he started passing enquiries to provide quotations for. I was actually getting a better rate and I eventually took on more of the daily management tasks. The original business was on a farm but we moved to our current location on a small trading estate in 1995. We worked out of ‘temporary’ office cabins for many years due to constantly being busy
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with operations and logistics. We now have purpose-built premises complete with meeting rooms and training facilities.”
Niche market identified
Fentons acquired SHS in 2004, the year after Terry Barton died. His business partner retired, and, being under new ownership, the operation had the resources to expand to serve larger contracts. “We added larger goods hoists and passenger lifts that can hold up to 22 people, and we identified a niche market for transport platforms, a hybrid machine with dual-purpose use as a ‘goods only’ hoist or with capability to transport personnel.”
At one stage, Fentons briefly re-located a plant hire office it had in Southampton to the Shedfield location, with the aim of adding access equipment, but it proved operationally challenging and the plant activity was eventually transferred to the Reading headquarters, which had a small hoist offering alongside access equipment. The hoist fleet was managed by Lance Foster, who joined Fentons in 1989 as a plant engineer. Ten years ago he provided holiday cover for two weeks at Shedfield and, finding he enjoyed working in the specialist SHS environment, has remained there since. Now Regional Manager, he prepares drawings, manages site logistics and other technical aspects, while Kirsty Archbold-Laming handles contracts and costings.
The company employs 18 people, including highly trained engineers installers who can undertake virtually all aspects of a contract,
Equipment hired from SHS was used during roof repair work at Westminster Abbey.
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