ALWAYS PADDLE YOUR OWN CANOE


T


ucked away in a quiet Gloucestershire village, the converted farmstead that


serves as Smiths’ headquarters does not really hint at the scale and scope of the company – it offers a variety of services, has five depots in the south west and Wales, over 500 staff across several divisions and has an annual turnover heading northwards of £50 million. For all of that,


Alan Smith, second left, with three of his four children - Rebecca, Paul and Lisa.


There are many sides to the Smiths (Gloucester) business. Following a recent acquisition, the company now moves into the plant & tool hire sector. We were keen to find out more…


Smiths remains a family company, with family values very much at its heart.


To say that Smiths had humble beginnings is an understatement. Founder and Director Alan Smith started the company in 1982, using the family home as a base with just a single excavator. The man himself fills in the backstory…


“I started out in agricultural contracting with my brother-in-law, but that didn’t go quite as well as we’d hoped,” he begins. “I came away from that with an old banger of a digger, but I got a lucky break with some council work.


“Growing the business was nothing complicated – I lost my father when I was 14 and I didn’t get any handouts, but lot of what drove me was the need to provide for my family. A friend of the family joined us around year later, and we grew from there, gradually expanding the fleet and always saying ‘yes’ to customers.


“We’ve always tried to make sure we had enough work in front of us. A lot of local people and builders took us on, and then it was the same old story – turn up to a job and do your very best, which has always been our work ethic.”


30 Executive Hire News - July/August 2022


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