Hirepool continues growth strategy with major access equipment acquisition

20 February 2012 - New Zealand equipment solutions leader, Hirepool Limited, has started the year with a major acquisition to bolster its specialised access equipment fleet, acquiring New Zealand Access Hire from New Zealand Crane Group. The purchase is effective immediately.

The addition of the NZ Access Hire fleet of elevated working platforms (EWPs), light towers and telehandlers will make Hirepool arguably the country’s largest single provider of EWPs, providing Hirepool increased penetration into the civil construction, infrastructure and film industry space.

Hirepool Chief Executive, Mark Powell, says that as the country’s premier rental equipment provider, “it made strategic sense for Hirepool to add the business to its own extensive suite of products. NZ Access has a well-deserved reputation for maintaining a quality fleet - like ours - with the machines available across our Hirepool branch network nationwide.”

Mr Powell says the NZ Access fleet of Genie machines has a replacement value of approximately NZ$12 million which complements Hirepool’s existing fleet of JLG machines, with both brands recognised as world leaders in the access equipment market.

It is the second purchase made by Hirepool in the last year. Back in March 2011, it strengthened its position in the portable building market by acquiring the assets of Hamilton-based Cube Innovations. These latest acquisitions in addition to last November’s opening of a new branch in Hamilton West - Hirepool now has three branches in Hamilton - signal the company’s commitment to growth.

Mr Powell says that despite activity in the construction sector having yet to recover, “the additional fleet of NZ Access Hire scissor lifts, boom lifts, light towers and telehandlers will be of significant benefit to help us meet both our current demand and that expected when the Christchurch re-build ramps up. The product mix is a natural fit into our business.”

Hirepool also owns and operates Henderson Rentals and Rhodes Rentals (vehicles) as well as New Zealand’s premier portable sanitation business, Port-A-Loo.

New Zealand Crane Group Managing Director, Deane Manley, says divesting the access equipment “has been on our radar for some time, and with Hirepool already having a well-established presence we saw that as the ideal solution. And it enables us to concentrate on our core business of hiring cranes that also require skilled operators, which has always been our speciality.”

The access equipment hire market is estimated to be worth around $80 - 100 million annually. Hirepool, which was established in June 1955, now comprises more than 50 general hire and other specialist rental businesses nationwide, from Whangarei to Invercargill. The company is jointly owned by a consortium that includes Next Capital and Hunter Powell Investments. Next Capital are also major shareholders in Onsite Rental Group - one of Australia’s largest specialised rental providers - a relationship that enabled Hirepool to immediately access 300 additional portable toilets and temporary fencing urgently required following Christchurch’s February earthquake.

ENDS

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