One Stop opens in London
6 November 2023
One Stop Hire Ltd has just opened its first depot in London.
Situated on a two-acre site in Erith in the south-east of the city, the 20,000 square foot unit will house all the company’s hire, sales, training, non-mechanical and lifting divisions.
CEO Steve Hitchen tells me that the opportunity came out of the blue.
“We had been concentrating on joining up gaps between our existing depots in Yorkshire and the east of England but it was proving difficult to recruit good personnel. We could find plant and premises but not people.
“However, our central nationwide Total Solutions Provider service, which we opened earlier this year, was reporting that more of our customers in the Midlands were winning business in London and required plant, as well as training, so this became the priority.
“We were lucky to find the site in Erith which was ideal because it has previously been used for plant, and we have been able to quickly attract a great team.”
Steve hopes this will be the first depot in a network that will eventually cover the whole M25 region, with perhaps four depots as a minimum to cover all points of the compass.
Approximately £1 million has been budgeted initially for equipment the fleet at Erith, the opening of which brings One Stop Hire’s network to 25 locations including hire and sales depots, training centres and branches dedicated to specialities like lifting.
“This is a great way to celebrate our recent 14th anniversary in October and sees us now evolve from a north-west regional to pretty much a national operator. This is an amazing achievement for the whole management team and staff who constantly drive this business forward.”
Steve says that the business outlook remains positive. ”House building has softened to some extent but the hire sector is lucky in being flexible enough to target other markets like utilities and facilities maintenance that are quite strong.”
● Steve also tells me that One Stop Hire’s Early Careers Academy which opened in the summer has established itself rapidly. “All the young people have bonded well and they’ve even formed a five-a-side football league team which we are funding. We hope they’ll become mates and well as colleagues and that initiatives like this will encourage them to stay with the business.”
