Growth spurt puts Hirepool on steroids

By Graeme Kennedy

Friday 27th August 2004

Equipment company Hirepool has doubled in size after its first year of new ownership steered by managing director Tenby Powell, who plans further expansion into associated non-core businesses.

About $5 million has been spent on acquiring smaller rental firms Taranaki Hire, Hire King of Takanini and Dunedin's Hire Master. Greenfields sites have been set up at Mt Maunganui, Hamilton West and Hastings, with another six due to open by the end of the year.

Hirepool's spending spree during the year included Auckland company Port-a-Loo, which Powell said was a solid business and he planned to take nationwide to become a portable sanitation company that could achieve revenues of more than $7 million within three years.

He said Hirepool's phase one growth strategy to achieve New Zealand-wide coverage by December next year was running six months ahead of schedule.

"It has been a blistering pace and we will keep it up with new sites in Tauranga, Christchurch, Palmerston North, Napier and Rotorua and two or three more acquisitions by the end of the year," he said.

"Hirepool was basically an Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington company when I bought into it and we have increased equipment size from 1.5 tonnes to five tonnes at our acquisitions to build the market in the regions and be competitive at that level."

Powell said the Taranaki, Takanini and Dunedin firms had been absorbed into Hirepool with no loss of staff. His company's biggest competitor, Dunedin-based Hirequip, earlier this year acquired Projex and beat Hirepool in a spirited bidding battle to gain Ready Hire, which operated mainly in the central North Island.

"They paid $21.2 million for Ready Hire and we were not prepared to go that high. We have already managed to re-create Ready Hire by replicating all the branches we would have had if we had bought the company.

"We knew we could achieve what we have done with greenfields strategies at half the price and five Ready Hire senior managers have joined us in the regions."

Powell, whose wife Sharon Hunter and Maurice Bryham built and sold their computer business PC Direct for $65 million, took a 24.5% stake in Hirepool through Hunter Powell Investments, sharing the company with Owens Group's 24.5% and JB Were Equity No 1 Fund's 50.1%.

They acquired a new partner after Mainfreight's acquisition of Owens.

The couple sold their Europacific Foods company early last year after Powell, a territorial army officer, returned from Lebanon, where he served as the peace-keeping unit's deputy commander.

He said Hirepool would be completely rebranded, with a new livery and image rolled out in June to reflect it as a dynamic, agile, experienced and professional company.

"We haven't set out to be the biggest but the best in quality and service," Powell said. "A digger is a digger, whether it's painted orange, yellow or pink. There is no advantage in different colours but our advantage is experienced staff and customer service with a fleet all under five years of age.

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