News for Tool Hire, Equipment Hire & Plant Hire and Rental Professionals

Alide meets demand

7 June 2020

Alide meets demand

Alide Hire Services is another company that is seeing business activity pick up following the easing of lockdown restrictions.

“On 23 March, we closed our three depots in Bristol, Bath and Keynsham for four weeks, mainly from a moral standpoint: we had to be part of the solution and help control the spread of the virus, and not be part of the problem,” MD Brett Thompson told me.

“However, we are now able to support the contractors who are re-opening their sites. Plant and toilets are particularly in demand, and managers are often specifying toilets with an optional hot water hand wash system that we offer. We’ve also been receiving more cash business for equipment like breakers, plates and mixers as furloughed people do projects at home.

“The day we re-opened, with a reduced workforce, we took 450 calls between the three of us.”

Like many other industry executives, Brett believes the current disruption is unlike the 2008 recession, since the cause is not an economic one and projects still need to be completed.

“However, I do think we might be in for something of a rough ride. The economy as a whole won’t get back to pre-Covid levels quickly, especially as we had been seeing an upward trend at the start of the year. People’s confidence needs to be restored so that they feel comfortable spending again. Nevertheless, another way of looking at it is that it is delayed spending, rather than none at all, and that is again unlike 2008.”

 


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