EXECUTIVE O&A
One Stop reaches ten
Alan Guthrie puts One Stop Hire MD Steve Hitchen in the Q&A hot seat.
The Chorley-based business is celebrating its tenth anniversary this month and opened its fourteenth hire depot earlier this year.
Q. How did One Stop Hire come about? A. My father-in-law, Martin Ainscough, sold his Ainscough Crane Hire business (where I was Operations Director for Heavy Cranes) in 2007 and I stayed on for two years. I then wanted to start a good regional hire business serving the north west of England and considered several market sectors. However, I heard that PSL (Power Supply Ltd) - where I had worked between 1986 and 1993 - and Wigan-based SJS Tool Hire might be for sale. We acquired both and that gave us ten depots overnight. This was in the depths of the recession, but we spent a lot on equipment, vehicles and improving premises when other companies weren’t. Customers loved the fact that we had shiny new kit to offer. Now we have 14 depots, five training centres and 152 staff. We started with 34 people - and 25 of them are still with us. And we have great customers. Everything we do is driven by them.
Q. How is business currently? A. Very strong, especially in the cities. We now have three depots in Manchester, one in Leeds and we opened one in Birmingham last April, which was in profit after just four months. Ironically, we held back for some time because of the uncertain political outlook, but there came a point when we just had to expand to meet customer demand. And our team are so enthusiastic to achieve more success.
Steve Hitchen at the Chorley head office.
Q. Might you open more depots? A. I can see ourselves eventually having three in the West Midlands because of projects like HS2 and The Commonwealth Games. We could grow in Yorkshire and the surrounding areas, perhaps in Sheffield, Doncaster and Nottingham. But we have no plans to venture south: the market dynamics there are very different.
The company has steadily expanded its retail operation.
Q. What drives your team’s enthusiasm? A. There’s a ‘dressing room’ mentality here. It’s a real team. Several people actually have successful sporting backgrounds - Operations Director Kieron Power was a semi-pro footballer, and Sales Director Darren Smith was a semi-pro boxer. We are very competitive but have a strong sense of fair play. Whenever anyone answers the phone they are ready for a challenge. Our motto is ‘The answer is yes, now what’s the question?’ and we always give a positive response. In truth, your staff are your most important assets. And it’s been great watching so many of them grow professionally and personally over the years, getting married, starting families.
The Birmingham depot opened last April.
Q. You are also active in attracting young people into the industry. A. I regularly visit local schools and colleges and attend recruitment fairs to tell them about a career in hire. I talk about the great variety it offers, how the challenge of getting, say, 20 orders delivered in a day is like solving a logic puzzle, the satisfaction it gives, and how you can even start your own business from a parents’ or friends’ garage with the right basic products and re-hiring the rest. One Stop Hire has recruited several people as a result of these visits, including workshop technicians and hire desk personnel.
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