MARKET REPORT GARDENING & LANDSCAPING continued
“We are also helping many existing customers by taking on more servicing work on their owned equipment, and this is a by-product of people still wanting to economise and extend the useful life of their machines. All our depots have been busier this year with work of this nature, and we have appointed an additional technician and an apprentice at Inverkeithing, with the possibility of recruiting another apprentice at Stockport.”
Specialist equipment
The diversity of grounds care equipment users, and the tasks they undertake, is reflected by the variety of hirers meeting this demand. A recent entrant into the industry is Bourne Plant & Tool Hire Ltd, based near Canterbury, which has developed alongside a landscaping business. “It originally started as one man and a van, trading under the name Bourne to Garden and maintaining domestic lawns and gardens,” MD Colin North, “but it has now developed into a business with ten employees. “
SGM recently added a Ventrac 4500 ride-on mower for highway embankments.
“The snap general election in May caused something of a slowdown. Some contractors quoted for large jobs which were then postponed pending the outcome, at a time when the grass and vegetation were already starting to grow. Some people are also wondering what effect Brexit will have, with implications for the availability of labour and possible equipment price rises due to exchange rate fluctuations. However, the grass will continue to grow whatever may happen, which should give steady overall demand for hired equipment.”
Steady business
Brexit and the election have also caused a slight disruption in demand according to Steven McInroy, MD of SGM Contracts, based in Fife. “Some people and organisations revised their spending plans due to the political uncertainty, especially with the talk of another Scottish independence referendum being possible in the future. However, having said that, business has remained steady at our main office in Inverkeithing and at our other depots at Gleneagles, Rotherham and Stockport. We continue to receive re-hire business from national hirers with customers working north of the border, and our Stockport facility won a tender to continue supplying equipment to a large local authority. Similarly, facilities management companies continue to require machines in certain areas from reliable hirers offering value for money, having previously had their own equipment fleets. Local councils also face on-going budgetary constraints and need cost-effective solutions.
“We sometimes struggled to hire heavy-duty specialist equipment for certain tasks, such as for removing large tree stumps. There are few genuinely rugged hydraulic stump grinders available, and the difference between some models can be like comparing a Formula 1 car and a milk float. We eventually found a Toro machine on the Ready4Rent stand when we saw the company at the Executive Hire Show in February.
“We had been considering opening a general tool hire activity for some time, and we appointed Luke Paine as Tool Hire Manager, who previously worked at a hire depot of a builders’ merchant. At the Show, we made contacts and bought equipment from a lot of companies, including Stihl cut-off saws, Altrad Belle mixers, Hilti breakers, Lyte ladders, and Yanmar mini excavators from A&Y Equipment. We will add more items to the fleet, and we are particularly interested in machines that are not easily available elsewhere.”
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Bourne Plant & Tool Hire’s Colin North, right, with Nick Creaser (centre) and Luke Paine. 47
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