EXECUTIVE REPORT


All systems Go


Go Hire has established itself as a thriving independent in Hull. Dan Jenkins talks to its dynamic owner about her journey from council employee to successful entrepreneur.


With its brightly-lit and well-appointed premises, Go Hire is certainly striking and this sense of standing out from the crowd is prevalent throughout the company’s culture.


A few years ago, the business was up for sale and meandering along when it caught the eye of Sally Wray, who was looking for a career change after working for two local authorities. “At the time there had been a lot of unemployment in our area,” she said. “I worked in a jobs skills club, with skilled men in their 50s from civil engineers to welders, all of whom had never been out of a job before.


“I felt we were patronising them, sending these men on ‘functional skills’ courses. There were a lot of untapped skills in that group. I told my boss that we were failing these people, and that we should set up a not-for-profit recruitment company to help them get back into |work. I was told to forget it.”


“You have to rescue yourself”


Feeling despondent, it was a discussion with her daughters over a bedtime story book which changed Sally’s life. “One night I was reading the bedtime story to my older two daughters. It was a Ladybird book about Will and Kate’s wedding. We were talking about how in essence he had married a commoner and how unusual this was for the Royal Family. My youngest daughter was expecting more of a traditional fairy tale and asked, ‘When did he rescue her, Mummy?’ Her sister immediately piped up, ‘Sometimes you have to rescue yourself!’ That really resonated with me. I decided the next day that I was going to change my life, do my own thing and be my own boss.”


After looking at businesses for sale, she chose Arnott Plant Hire, an established independent in Hull that required some love and attention. “It was a backstreet, tin-roof building, covered in dust


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and muck, but it clearly had a lot of potential: for example, it didn’t have a website and wasn’t in a great location.”


The Wrays re-mortgaged their house in order to purchase Arnott and signed the paperwork in January 2015. “The first two years were the most challenging. I couldn’t even pay myself a wage. Everything went back into the business. I inherited three staff and two of them clearly did not like having a new boss. They knew that I needed them more than they needed me, so I had to very quickly change that dynamic by learning everything I could about the hire industry. I spent the first two years doing the deliveries, so I got plenty of experience at the sharp end.”


The showroom area is brightly-lit and welcoming.


By April 2015 Sally had already re-branded the business as Go Hire and, in November, moved it to much bigger, better-located premises in Goulton Street. The new site was a former college, and she set about finding other tenants to fill it. The building is now home to a self-storage business, established by her husband, and a café called Go Stop, which Sally set up and then brought in someone else to run.


The equipment fleet has expanded steadily since the operation’s re-launch.


Two of the employees she inherited had left during this transition, meaning the business then relied on Sally, fitter Paul Upton and two apprentices. In May 2017 Rob Thompson was recruited as Depot Manager. He had worked for A-Plant


for 20 years and has been in the hire industry for 30 in total.


“It was a challenge to convince Rob to come, but he has thrived here and so has our business since he arrived,” said Sally. More staff followed, including Hire Controller, Kylie Uttley, who joined last year. Go Hire now employs ten people on a mixture of full and part-time contracts.


MOVING FORWARD WITH CONFIDENCE


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