Crosshire

Exhibiting Confidence

Executive Hire News, March 2008                                          Go to main Crosshire page

Typical of the many organisations who ride on the back of our industry and contribute little but doom and gloom are those who purport to engage in financial analysis and reporting. I have just received a flyer from one such outfit containing bullet points alleging that nearly 500 of us are suffering from "stalled sales growth", that more than 200 are apparently in such a sad state that "they will struggle to survive", and a load of us are ready to get out while we can! If the authors of this nonsense were to actually get off their backsides and find out what is really going on in the hire game, they might come up with more meaningful analysis.

Undoubtedly one of the best places to gain the blunt, tell it how it is, view of the market was at the recent Executive Hire Show. I was pleased to meet a large number of old friends from across the British Isles including some of the remaining 'first generation' tool hirers. They have certainly not cut and run, but continue to relish the renewed challenges that are on offer. The exhibition hall was buzzing from early on day one, and you will have read elsewhere in this issue about the positive reactions from exhibitors and visitors. Crosshire even broke the habit of a lifetime and actually purchased a fair amount of kit direct at the Show.

It was good to see a lot of middle ranking hire controllers and counter staff from a wide section of the industry, and everywhere the talk was of prospects for the coming year. Whatever else is going on in the national economy, our industry is buoyant and gearing up to take advantage of the growing demand for modern equipment. Yes, I did hear one or two people pronouncing dark days ahead, but quite frankly they were tired voices with tired hire inventories, and are probably candidates for the doom mongers' 'struggle to survive' category. I was introduced to several newcomers to hire, bright young men who had worked on PAYE for others and were now ready to take on the challenge of running their own outfit. There appears to be no shortage of funding for those who can put up a sound business case. I met a number of finance providers who confirmed that, while the retail divisions of the financial industry are a disaster, the banks are keen to re-deploy funds to industries like ours where they see a more stable future.

I witnessed more than one heated discussion about hire and transport charges and, whilst we still have a way to go to achieve sensible returns in some areas, there does appear to be an upward trend in rates with the recent hikes in diesel fuel making the free transport lobby a diminishing minority. I sincerely hope you all had a look at Crosshire's New Product Zone at the Show. It displayed a variety of excellent contenders illustrating the product development taking place and the faith that suppliers are investing in our industry.

My fellow judges from sponsor, TP Hire, and I decided the worthy winner was a consumable, namely the Liquid Hammer Concrete Remover marketed by Parker Merchanting. The sponsors conducted tests to prove the claims made for it and, as someone who has experienced the exaggerated claims and toxic credentials of previous products in this market, we believe it could save every hire operation a great deal of time and money. It will be interesting to hear if you are in agreement. Exchange of views and information is a vital commodity in our industry. I know that EHN will carry this theme forward during the year, a year about which most of you at the Show confirmed a robust confidence, despite the doom and gloom merchants.

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