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000898 - Ten Years of EHN 23/11/09 13:25 Page 3
The ability to monitor such developments is dependent on
maintaining close contact with our industry, which we have
encouraged with several initiatives besides the monthly magazine
(whether sent through the post or, now, digitally via e-mail).
In March/April 2001 we introduced our Forum articles, discussing
issues affecting the industry and stimulating debate. And in October
Hirers helped transform London’s West End into a Formula 1 circuit in 2004.
2008 we launched the Executive Hire Club, enabling hirers to air their
news and views, swap experiences and solve problems. This sort of
commitment and drive of industry professionals. It also showed again
initiative would simply not have been possible a decade ago, and is
their ability to adapt and innovate.
an invaluable resource - so use it!
And innovation has been evident throughout the last decade.
‘Working together’
EHN has reported on some considerable hire achievements, such as
However, the best example of ‘working together’ has been in creating
helping transform London’s West End into a Formula 1 racing circuit;
the Executive Hire Show. Indeed, our very first Forum article invited
providing emergency power to residents of Boscastle when the
hirers to comment on the state of the industry’s exhibition, then Hirex,
Cornish village was devastated by flash flooding; reacting to the
which had seen attendance drop by 25% over the previous year.
London terrorist bomb attacks in July 2005; or designing gantries for
EHN had always believed that our industry needs an annual Show -
maintaining high-rise buildings in Canary Wharf, comprising
but one that accurately reflects its specific needs.
components that can go in a lift. We have also praised the smaller,
but similarly important acts that successful hirers
perform, such as working well outside normal hours,
and taking time to find specific solutions for customers.
Passion and commitment
If the industry can maintain this passion and
commitment, as evidenced so strongly in our recent
Taking Our industry’s Pulse articles, then we can look
positively ahead to the next ten years and beyond.
Some challenges will always remain: one of
Crosshire’s perennial themes, as the ‘Get The Rates
Up’ title of his March/April 2001 column shows, has
been that of charging a sensible price, and of
collecting monies owed. Many others will revolve
around change. In January 2002, our Forum explored
the very nature of tool hire, saying ‘The days when the
The Executive Hire Show - the best example of our industry ‘working together’.
industry could be defined as carrying an item, which cost less than
EHN became the focus of debate on the exhibitions issue, and
£1,000, out of a shop, are long gone.’ And EHN’s purchase of the
reported as Hirex became a ‘zone’ within SED in 2003, then a ‘show
assets of PHE Plant Hire Executive, announced last month, confirms
within a show’ at Interbuild in 2004. We covered the first Premier Hire
on-going change - and opportunity.
event held in Wembley in 2000, which would become The Hire Show
in 2004. However, recognising the necessity for a centrally located,
However, the most important facet of our industry that emerges from
dedicated hire exhibition, and determined to create a truly industry
analysing the last ten years is the people within it. One of the article
representative event, in July 2006 EHN announced that the Executive
headings in the first EHN I was involved with in December 1999 was
Hire Show would take place at the Ricoh Arena in 2007, under the
‘People matter’. Similarly, in July 2003, another industry legend,
theme Let’s Work Together.
Sir Matthew Goodwin, former Chairman of Hewden Stuart, wrote
eloquently: “For many years there was a slogan in my office that read
Built on the platform of EHN, this was an event developed by the
‘the only thing that matters is people’. It is the people in the depots
industry, for the industry, whose views were obtained by speaking to
who run the machines, know their customers and the problems
hirers and suppliers, holding regional focus groups, and EHN even
associated with a breakdown in the middle of a December night on a
co-ordinated a G8 ‘summit’ of integrated suppliers and passionate
Welsh mountain.” With the right people, and the right outlook,
hirers. This was a remarkable achievement, demonstrating not only
our industry will surmount any challenge, from customer demands to
the magazine’s central position in the industry, but also the
computer bugs.

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