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MARKET REPORT GARDEN CARE


The hire activity is located in a dedicated building opposite the builders’ merchant complex.


Hale and hearty


Garden and grounds care equipment is an area of special focus for Hales Hire, part of a long-established and diverse family-owned business. Alan Guthrie visited its HQ.


Tool and equipment hire is a relatively recent activity for Hale & Co (Drybrook) Ltd. Its Hales Hire operation was established in 2011 and is one of several departments within a group whose foundation dates back to 1830, when Cornelius Hale opened a blacksmith’s forge at Nailbridge, near Drybook, within the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire. Succeeding generations of the family assumed the running of the business, which grew steadily to include a sawmill and, later, a builders’ merchant.


Expansion accelerated after WWII when an opportunity was detected in meeting demand for materials and equipment needed to build and renovate houses owned by local colliers working in the booming mining industry. Under the management of Jim Hale, the founder’s great-great grandson, the thriving operation became a limited company in 1960 and grew into a ‘one-stop-shop’ comprising the builders’ merchant, sawmill, joinery, kitchens and bathrooms department, heating and plumbing department, as well as glass cutting, paint mixing and key cutting. Each main service is located in dedicated buildings on an impressive seven-acre site, employing 55 people.


Today, Hale & Co’s development is under the day-to-day control of Director & General Manager Jake Hale, who is Jim Hale’s grandson and great-great-great-great grandson of Cornelius Hale. Having worked in the business as a teenager at weekends and during school holidays, he joined formally in 2011 after completing


a master’s degree in Global Supply Chain Management while working for the logistics function of Rolls-Royce plc in Derby.


Input from various departments


“We aim to offer everything a professional or homeowner might need for their building project,” Jake told EHN. “We can provide items for a specific task from our specialist services, while for larger projects requiring many different items, like a new-build or extensive renovations, our team can co-ordinate input from our various departments. People come to us from a very wide radius.”


Although Hales Hire was added in 2011, its origins date back further. Located in a separate building opposite the site’s main entrance, it grew from an activity hiring mixers and servicing equipment owned by builders’ merchant customers, run by one of the company’s engineers, Nick Taylor. Nick eventually bought this operation (renaming it Taylor Tool Hire), with an agreement that Hale & Co would have the opportunity to buy it back if he should sell it. They did so when he decided to retire, by which time it had added a thriving garden and grounds care equipment hire and sales activity. This developed further, especially following a major refurbishment in 2014.


“We wanted to create a bright, welcoming environment where professionals and tradesmen could hire equipment they needed, as well as encouraging homeowners to talk about buying equipment,


From left, Jake Hale, Neal Sherrington and Jason Howell. 19


Part of the ground floor retail area in the hire shop.


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