PROFILE CHAMPION HIRE LTD


Champion’s first depot at 323 Abbeydale Road, Sheffield.


Worthy Champion


Sheffield-based Champion Hire Ltd, which has five depots covering the North of England and the Midlands, is this year celebrating its 50th anniversary. Alan Guthrie traces the company’s fascinating development.


Champion Hire was originally established as ‘Hire it’ in December 1968. Since then it has grown to become a well-known specialist hirer of plant, tools and equipment to the construction and civil engineering industries. The company first opened as ‘Hire it’ based at 323 Abbeydale Road, Sheffield, when John Booth, who had previously run another plant business - Walter Ames (Plant Hire) Ltd - and Keith White, today Champion Hire’s MD, who had been a former employee of the same company, decided to form the new venture.


“Booth was working in Manchester during the five year period after Walter Ames had been sold,” recalls Keith White. “He was under contract not to start any similar plant hire business (mechanical plant) in the areas where Walter Ames had traded. During his time working for Atcost Engineering in Manchester, he saw HSS launch a depot there. HSS was then a subsidiary of SGB, the largest scaffolding hire company in the UK at that time.


“After three years working for someone else (Atcost), Booth wanted to get back to working for himself and thought that a business hiring non-mechanical plant would be a good route. Early in September 1968, he telephoned me and put the idea to me, asking if I would be interested in joining him, on the understanding he would remain working for Atcost until the end of his contract two years hence, and in line with his agreement in respect of the sale of Walter Ames.”


The original name


The company’s first catalogue, sporting the original ‘Hire it’ name.


The company’s original ‘Hire it’ name, which was refused incorporation back in 1968, became the title everybody knew the business by, even though the company was incorporated in 1969 as Champion Hire Ltd. This was because the original ‘Hire it’ logo was used to precede the company’s name, as in “Hire it @ Champion Hire Ltd.” ‘Hire it’ stuck and 50 years later, the company says, many people still know it by the original name. It also points out that the resemblance of this format


to email, which of course did not exist in 1968, is strangely prescient. 17


The name Champion itself was taken from another Director and shareholder, Horace Champion. Over the next 15 years until 1983, Champion Hire went on to open three more depots: Meanwood in Leeds; Whittington Moor in Chesterfield; and Carbrook Street, Sheffield. In November 1983, a new investor, Tim Hale, and Keith White purchased the company from John Booth and Horace Champion, who both retired.


Significant expansion


Tim Hale says, “My previous background was in industrial market research. I had spent four years working as part of the Mergers & Acquisitions team for Sir Hugh Sykes, as he built up his business empire, eventually culminating in the flotation of Thermal Scientific plc. This inspired me to want to work for myself and, following the placing of a teaser advert in the FT, John Booth - Champion's majority shareholder at the time - made contact with me and we began discussions. Shortly after, through a mutual financial contact at the Royal Bank of Scotland, I was introduced to Keith White, effectively Champion's Operations Director. We hit it off well, found we had compatible skills, and to cut a long story short, we bought the business in November 1983.”


The business initially specialised in hire of small plant and tools to builders and private individuals. Over the following 35 years, it expanded significantly, with some depots moving to larger premises, and new locations being opened in Hull, Bradford, Nottingham, Doncaster and Derby, with a separate Head Office at Roman Ridge Road in Sheffield. Unfortunately, the recession of 2008 led to the closure of four of the nine depots during 2010.


“Opening new depots was always fraught with issues and having to close them was even worse,” recalls Tim Hale. “The horrendous events of the 2007/8 credit crash, which resulted in us having to close the four depots and let some of our team go in 2010, was particularly memorable - or should I say, traumatic! On a more positive note, it made us more aware of our customers' requirements, and, ten years on, our profitability is higher now with five depots, than it was at the time, with nine.


MOVING FORWARD WITH CONFIDENCE


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