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New pump division primes GAP for growth

8 February 2022

New pump division primes GAP for growth

GAP Hire Solutions has introduced a dedicated Pump Services division which enables the company to serve its current customer base and gives further growth opportunities in areas like quarrying and silt separation.

Joint managing director, Douglas Anderson tells me, “It is supplying equipment for handling clean water, sewage and other types of liquids. We are offering diesel units, hydraulics and electrical submersibles, also surface mounted electric models and related items including our silt sifter solution and chemical dosing equipment.

“We will buy £18 million worth of pumps and ancillaries like road crossing pipes and de-silting and soil separation units this year, of which £4 million has already been delivered.”

Core manufacturers in GAP’s fleet include Atlas Copco, DXB pumps & Active Engineering, with sizes available from 2in to 12in across the range.

“All our pumps are the most modern and efficient available, with Stage V engines and full telematics so that we are in total control of their operation,” said Douglas. 

The Pump Services division currently operates from large sites which are amongst GAP’s Non-Mechanical and Welfare depots at Tilbury, Derby and Tewkesbury, with a presence at its Bury St Edmunds and Harthill facilities opening soon. The network will eventually expand to approximately 15 branches throughout the country. 

New personnel have been recruited for the operation, including Richard Broughton who is head of Pump Services and very well known in the pump and generator hire industry with over 17 years of experience.

GAP reports that significant contracts have already been won with a number of water companies and the operation is able to respond very rapidly when required. 

“We’ve handled several emergency call-outs in the early hours of the morning where we had to mobilise more than a dozen articulated lorries loaded with pumps, fuel cubes, several kilometres of hose and many other items of equipment and delivered it to site within a couple of hours,” Douglas told me. “That is the level of service you have to provide when there’s a major pipe burst or a sewer collapse.” 

Eventually, Pump Services, which is GAP's eleventh standalone, specialist division, could be expanded to offer equipment for handling hazardous waste and other wet waste materials. This also gives the opportunity to reach customers in manufacturing, civil engineering, quarrying and new markets. 

GAP, which operates from more than 150 locations nationwide, plans to double in size within the next six years. Opening the Pump Services division is obviously a significant step towards this goal, and Douglas says that we can expect further announcements about the family-owned company’s growth in the not too distant future.

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