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Understandably this operation required tools and plant equipment. “We were spending about £10,000 a month on hire, which was a lot of money back then,” he adds. Recognising that there was plenty of room in the yard at the company’s premises in Richmond, North Yorkshire, he proposed to create his own on-site hire operation. His bosses agreed.
“It was very straightforward as I knew there was a market for it. I simply bought equipment and it went straight out on hire to the wall coating business. Access towers were a big product back then, so we invested in them along with power tools like Stihl saws.”
By the time the wall coating company was acquired and ultimately relocated to Leeds, Graham had already won enough other clients to ensure his hire business could carry on. “There was extension work to the A1 at the time which was keeping us busy, and we had contracts with some big customers like Catterick Garrison,” he says.
In 1993, Newcastle-based Lord Hire approached Graham about acquiring his business, as Lord looked to grow its reach into North Yorkshire. “They wanted to move into the area and if they’d set up as a competitor, I knew they would have taken a chunk of my business, so I accepted their offer.”
While some business owners do not adjust well to being part of a bigger company, Graham embraced it. “I learned so much from Lord about quality assurance systems and other processes that I simply hadn’t understood when I ran my own hire business. Lord’s systems were exceptionally good for their time and I took it all in.”
Anchorage Hire Centre - Profile
Anchorage owner, Graham Halliday.
He worked for Lords for 16 years, rising through the ranks to become a senior manager. One of his main tasks was being sent to underperforming depots to bring them back up to speed. In late 2008 he was working in Northallerton at Lord’s depot in Anchorage Lane when word came through that the company was closing the branch.
“After the financial crash, Lord decided to reduce the number of depots on the outer extremities and this was one of them. They offered me a job elsewhere, but I saw the need for a hire business in Northallerton.”
Graham left Lord and set up his own business, relocating to the old Lord Hire premises in Anchorage Lane in 2010 and Anchorage Hire Centre was born. “I went to see the area manager at Lord to ask for their blessing to use the old depot and they agreed. In fact, they helped me out in a big way, and we ended up doing a lot of cross- hire business with them.”
This kind of direct and honest approach characterises how Graham does business and he says it is the only way to be in a rural market town. “About 85 per cent of our business is within a 20-mile radius. If you are straight and honest with people and provide a good service for them, the majority of them will come back time and time again. Most of my customers have been coming here since it was Lord Hire. They transferred over when I set up the business and trusted me to look after them.”
Malcolm Morris checks the cables.
This ethos even extends to referring customers to competitors. During our visit, Graham takes time to help a caller find a brick crusher from someone else in the town. “We know the lads at the other hire shops and pass on customers. We are
obviously in competition with them but we’re not out to cut each other’s throats. The same goes for the businesses around us on this estate. We use the mechanics when needed and the engineering business over the road, and they reciprocate by sending people our way. It’s a proper community. This estate is probably the busiest per square foot in the area by a long way and we’ve known some of our neighbours for 30 years.”
‘‘ In 2014 I went home
after work and by the following day I’d had three heart attacks and four bypasses
He believes that one of the strengths of an independent is its adaptability. “Most hire chains carry the same range of products. We can adapt our hire fleet to suit our customer base. For example, a few years ago there was a housing association hiring a lot of generators, but they were having to lug them about in wheelbarrows to get them from their vehicles to the houses. So, we went out and bought wheeled generators for them.”
’’
A man who was back at work two weeks after a heart bypass operation does not give up his business lightly. But we arrive at AHC to find that, after 39 years at the helm, Graham is preparing to weigh anchor. He is putting the business up for sale and retiring at 67 due to health reasons. “I have a great team and we’ve continually modernised, bringing in IT systems like InspHire,” he says. “I’m leaving the business in good shape as the last two years have been particularly strong for us. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it but it’s time for me to move on.” n
Nov/Dec 2022 - Executive Hire News 19
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