Profile - Alide Hire Services


“It took Gareth and Shaun the best part of seven years to find the depot in St Jude’s, closer to town, which helped us take some steps forward as a business. We found out the whole area was due to be redeveloped as housing, so we made the decision to leave before we were forced out.


“Once we’d shown our interest in the new location, the tenant still had six month left on his contract, and then there was another six of dilapidations to sort out. We finally took the keys in October last year and we were open by December 14th.”


And what opportunities does the new depot enable?


“Days Road, where we are now, is always busy and benefits from a great deal of passing traffic. There’s a Jewson opposite, lots of other industrial premises nearby and a tip around the corner. Basically, the new depot is a bit smaller, but it’s a much better location, it has good road links and having a better layout overall has allowed us to improve our operational efficiency.”


That’s great to hear, of course. Finally, then, where or what next for the company – has the new move inspired any further expansion plans?


“Dealing with the recent management situation and buying out one of the partners has given us the ability to think about pushing forward,” says


GET CONNECTED! See the full fleet and keep an eye on web developments at www.alidehire.co.uk


Just a snapshot of the storage area in the new depot. How long the neat arrangement lasts remains to be seen.


Brett. “Anyone who has been through that will know that it can take years, it’s costly and it can be painful. Now that we are on the other side of all that, we can start thinking about where we go next. Alide has a loyal customer base in Bristol, so we can do more from this depot. There’s growth at the Bath depot too, and we travel down to Weston Super Mare and Gloucester an awful lot, also Swindon, so we might look at something there.


“I think we better understand now what we really need in a depot – the size, the infrastructure, the team. It’s almost like a franchise method of growth, but I think we can expand quite quickly if we want to do that…” n


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Spinning the web Alide’s website represents the company rather well, being sleek, straightforward and mindful of the user experience. It seems that it still doesn’t quite match with Brett’s ambitions, however. “We are proud of it, but we’re actually investing a lot of money in a


Paul Robertson Jim Maccall


bookings@learningforhire.com www.learningforhire.com


16 Executive Hire News - May 2021


new website to make it even more user-friendly,” he says. “As far as we see it, the eyes into our business are through the site, and we really want the site to appeal to the cash customers market. We need it to have a more transparent pricing structure that is relevant to individual customer needs – say, a specific item for a certain number of days, delivered to a given address with insurance. That way, each customer would get an accurate breakdown of costs. “We want the new site to engage with customers, giving them all


the information they need to make their hire and purchasing decisions. It’s a continuous investment, but we are working with a company in Bristol to ensure the site always has the relevant keywords, answers the right questions and keeps us high in the Google rankings.”


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