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EXECUTIVE REPORT


WM Plant milestone


Alan Guthrie visits WM Plant in Carlisle, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary and is continuing to develop its operation.


WM Plant of Carlisle joins the worthy ranks of hire companies that EHN has written about recently which have the rare distinction of having achieved their 50th anniversary. Today, this single-depot business has plenty to offer besides their hire expertise, including servicing and repairs, as well as sales, with a growing number of dealerships.


The business was started in August 1969 as B R Ward Plant Hire by its founder, Barrie Ward, at the age of 21. After graduating from Sheffield University with a degree in Fuel Technology and Chemical Engineering, he bought a second-hand dump truck and got a job working on the new section of the M6 between Penrith and Carlisle. His plan was to do this temporarily before following a career in the burgeoning oil industry.


The hire lasted for 18 months. During this time, Barrie identified the potential in hiring out small, non-operated plant at the same time as offering his driving services. Several Stihl ‘Cutquiks’ were purchased with worn out engines, which were overhauled at night after work and put out to hire on the same site. “On the termination of the dump truck hire, enquiries were coming in for more non- operated plant, and equipment was purchased including more Stihl Cutquiks and 08S chainsaws, mixers and even second-hand JCB backhoe loaders and International loaders, all hired on a non-operated basis,” Barrie told EHN. “Customers’ own machines, especially


Cutquiks and Master heaters, were also serviced and repaired.


“The key factor”


“This experience made me realise that, in hire, the amount of turnover you can achieve is not simply based on the number of hours you can work in a day: the key factor is rather the size of your fleet and the number of machines you can get out on hire.”


Barrie had been working from a workshop in the village of Aglionby but it became clear that larger premises were needed. A plot of two-thirds of an acre was acquired on the new Rosehill Industrial Estate in Carlisle, on former farmland, and work started on the construction of what was to become the current depot.


The original building of 3,600ft2 was self-built and funded by the


business, which kept running at the same time. Today, the premises cover some 10,000ft2


. “We have never funded our expansion


through bank borrowing, financing the business by investing profits back into it,” said Barrie. “We grew steadily, adding more people in the process. We have ten personnel, many of whom are long-serving. At a recent team meeting, we calculated that five members of staff sitting at the table had a total of 181 years of service in our business.”


On the completion of the building in 1974, Barrie was joined in the business by his stepfather, William Meadows. William was working for a local farm equipment dealership, Rickerby Ltd, as a Manager of its Construction Machinery Department. A limited company was formed with equal shareholdings and hence the name Ward Meadows Plant Ltd was born, trading as WM Plant.


Barrie and Jill Ward, with their daughter Rosie, outside the company’s Carlisle HQ. 11


Its first supplier was Thomas Niven and Son, a Carlisle timber merchant which was the importer for Stihl products in the UK. This was run separately from the timber mill by a staff of three - Mr Niven Senior (admin), Mr Niven Junior (spares parts stores) and a mechanic. “Machines and spare parts could be obtained immediately with 100% availability on visiting the premises,” Barrie told EHN. “It was said that this was not the case with posted orders from other parts of the country.”


Stihl products are shown in a dedicated atrium.


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