Where Hire and Sales DO Mix - DAC
Anyone that lived through the ill-fated BCP Hire debacle of the early 1990s will know that combining hire with sales is often unpopular and always fraught with danger. However, as Mark Anthony reports, the Dig A Crusher approach should not only allay the fears of all concerned but existing hire customers should be genuinely excited at the prospect.
“Wherever possible, the hire will be handled by an existing customer “
“Plant hire companies operating an excavator fleet are ideal customers for us“
There can be little doubt that the Dig A Crusher and Dig A Screener product lines are ideally suited to a hire environment. Like the breakers, grabs and pulverisers that form the mainstay of many specialist hire fleets, these low-maintenance attachments enhance the returns from and increase the utilisation of carrier machines and yet cost virtually nothing to run or transport.
However, Dig A Crusher’s decision to form its own hire division is a brave and bold move. In the past, UK capital equipment sales companies have had their fingers severely burnt as their move into the realms of hire was perceived as competing unfairly with its own customers. And while the passage of time has made the UK plant market more accepting of this practice, it is notable that the major manufacturers that have managed to run hire alongside sales have done so either via a high degree of specialisation or by acquisition of a known and respected hire company.
Dig A Crusher’s approach, however, is as innovative as it is simple. With around 300 of its excavator-mounted crushing and screening bucket attachments at large in the UK and with around 60 percent of these available for hire, managing director Sean Heron has devised a win-win approach that will find favour with even the most vocal opponents of hire/sales.
As the company forms its own hire division, which will start with a fleet of around 20 representative models from both the crushing and screening stables, it is planning to put its existing hire customers at the very forefront of its national coverage. “Our market intelligence suggests that, in light of the current economic downturn, many potential customers are no longer willing or able to purchase capital equipment and are switching to hire to help reduce costs. We are also aware that our equipment is ideally suited to ‘hit and run’ projects where only a small amount of material is to be processed,” Heron explains. “However, we’re also very aware that well over half of our existing customers derive all or part of their income from the hire of our equipment. The solution we have created will provide customers with nationwide access to our equipment on a hire basis and will not alienate our existing customer base.”
Heron’s solution is straightforward. Hire calls taken at the company’s Middlewich head office are initially vetted by geographic location and, wherever possible, the hire will be handled by an existing customer that has the correct equipment available to hire. To illustrate this point, Heron cites existing customer and hire specialist, L. Lynch Plant Hire. “If we took a call from a potential customer seeking a hire in Wembley or North London, our first call would be to L. Lynch as they are ideally placed to handle that rental,” Heron explains. “Only if Lynch was unable to provide the correct equipment in the required timeframe would we get involved in any way.”
Of course, contractors have become very adept at shopping around for the best price for each individual hire, often playing one hirer against another to secure the best deal. Not so with the Dig A Crusher hire fleet. “We have established and agreed a national hire rate for each of our products so our customers know exactly what their hire costs will be, no matter what the geographic location of the site,” Heron asserts. “This provides the customer with total transparency and overcomes the potential of any hire rate bidding battles.”
Although the new hire division will work across a broad range of industry sectors and applications, Heron firmly believes that cross-hires to plant hirers with ready access to excavators will be a key business area. “Plant hire companies operating an excavator fleet are ideal customers for us as they understand the carrier machine and they are seeking the highest possible levels of utilisation for that machine,” Heron concludes. “In addition, with the house building market currently in disarray, many of them will be seeking new avenues of opportunity and revenue. The Dig A Crusher and Dig A Screener products have the ability to take them into previously untapped market sectors and, with our cross-hire scheme, they can test these markets without an additional capital outlay.”
2nd Mar 2009
