PROFILE continued
“Working for Sir Hugh taught me that the best way to grow a business is to put together a good team, and let them get on with it. Step in to guide and help where needed, but essentially delegate and stand back. We have many long-serving staff and we are proud of that. Keeping skills up-to-date by training is an essential way of developing people and ensuring they have the relevant knowledge to help our customers. Without happy customers, there is no business.
“Moving to supplying more plant than tools has obligated us to use bigger vehicles, which brought its own issues; and the inclusion of increasingly more advanced technology in the equipment we hire has developed at a pace. Attitudes to Health & Safety have changed immensely (for the good) and, over the years, relationships with our main suppliers have become closer. To achieve a continuity of 50 years’ service to the construction industry is, I think, pretty much an achievement in itself.
Kubota mini excavators are important fleet items.
I emphasise the word 'service', as Champion is first and foremost providing a service to its customers. Indeed, several customers have been with us for 50 years too, for which we thank them.”
Comprehensive fleet
The company now concentrates on hiring a range of small and medium sized non-operated plant to the building, civil engineering and contracting trades, in the North and East Midlands. It specialises in hi-lift dumpers, excavators, powered access platforms, compaction rollers and plates, compressors, concrete cutting, drilling and grinding equipment, mixers, screeders and floor preparation equipment, generators ranging up to 60kVA, pumps, dehumidifiers and site lighting.
Strategic deals have been struck with many manufacturers and distributors over the years, and Champion’s reinvestment policy ensures that modern equipment forms the mainstay of the fleet. These include Altrad Belle, Hilti, Husqvarna, Kubota, Terex, Thwaites and Wacker, amongst others.
Champion believes that one of its strengths over 30 of the last 50 years has been the company's fully integrated, real-time computer system, which provides instant practical and management information for running the business. “When I first got involved with Champion, the business was not computerised at all,” says Tim Hale. “Everything was on paper, including some quite complicated on-hire/off-hire calculations
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used to generate invoices. We undertook an evaluation of what options were available to us and settled on a relational database system (RDBS) known as 'Pick' which ran on 'Zebra' hardware! The RDBS was being developed for the HOLMES Police Analysis Support Program, amongst other things, so we knew it would do the job. We employed a programmer and began to write our own suite of programs.
Competing with the market leaders
“Since that time, we have upgraded our hardware many times, but are still running our own bespoke software, even though nowadays it fully integrates into standard programs such as Excel, Word, Acrobat, Sage and the like. This real-time multi-depot software is no longer the innovation in the market place it once was. However, it does mean that Champion Hire is more than able to compete with the industry's market leaders.”
Looking ahead, Tim Hale and Keith White say that, “The last two years have felt very much like swimming against the tide. Brexit has cast a shadow over the British economy and we will all be glad when it's over. Following which, Champion Hire will be able to resume its positive progress. It is too early to think about new depots, but we do plan to keep our plant and tool fleet up-to-date and ahead of customer expectations, in response to new products and technical developments in the market. We also intend to specialise within some of the lines giving more depth and focus. However, without a good, positive outcome from Brexit, these ambitions might be somewhat more limited than we would hope. Perhaps ‘consolidation’ would be a more appropriate approach and ambition at this time.”
Whatever the future may bring, given its long pedigree and its proven management team, Champion Hire is in a strong position as it sets on the next chapter of its history.
•
www.championhire.com
Champion provides small and medium sized non-operated plant throughout the North and the East Midlands.
A recent delivery of Wacker Neuson RTSC3 remote control trench rollers.
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