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IRN NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2013
SIMPLEX EQUIPMENT RENTAL INTERVIEW
Montreal, because that’s where it started. Everyone
is nervous. It isn’t clean. It’s big and it’s hurting the
market.”
The commission’s work is still in progress, so for
Simplex and others who are reliant on construction,
it is a matter of simply getting on with business as
best they can.
In the case of Simplex it has plenty more on its
plate, primarily an ambitious plan to extend its
market share in the aerial platform and forklift
rental sectors in Quebec by opening 20 new
locations in the next two years.
“We want to concentrate on the Montreal and
Quebec market,” says Mr Véronneau, who is the
fourth generation of the family to run the business,
“We’re not over the whole territory and we would
like to do that. There are some very important parts
of the region where we aren’t now and we feel we
can offer more to those markets. We want to be at
65 branches.”
That kind of increase in footprint might seem like
a big leap, but the company is having to respond to
a market environment that is very competitive, with
mid-sized companies like Hewitt Equipment, Lou-Tec
and Komatsu Rents/SMS Rents pressing against it.
“We want to grow,” Mr Véronneau says. “We need
more locations, so now we are focusing on improving
our productivity and making sure our processes are
in line.”
Back to aerials
The plan to expand the network is not the only
big change at the company. Simplex has taken
the decision to scale back its involvement in the
earthmoving sector to focus on its most important
products, which are the self-propelled booms,
scissor lifts and industrial forklifts that already
represent around three quarters of its C$150 million
(€106 million) fleet.
The company plans to invest more into its “money-
making” equipment – those booms, scissors and lift
trucks – and reduce its exposure to earthmoving.
“[Earthmoving] is not worth the investment,” says
Mr Véronneau, “The money is not there for us and
it’s a slower sector that we are looking at getting
out of. We will use the money from earthmoving to
invest into a more profitable sector.”
Fleet investment last year was about C$12 million
(€8.5 million) and spending this year will rise to
R
ental businesses have all sorts of challenges,
but one of the more unusual is that facing
rental companies in Quebec, Canada, where
there has been a very public problem of organised
crime infiltrating the construction business.
It is alleged that Quebec contractors took part in
a scheme to rig the bids on public work projects,
with organised crime getting pay-offs from winning
contractors. The issue is now the subject of an
extensive government enquiry, the Charbonneau
Commission.
“The general enquiry to look at all construction
activity – the infiltration of organised crime in
construction – has been going on for 18 months now,”
says André Véronneau, CEO of Simplex Equipment
Rental, the largest independent rental company in
Canada and known in Montreal primarily under its
French name, Location d’outils Simplex.
“It has slowed down demand, especially in
Simplex
refocuses
André Véronneau, long-standing CEO of Montreal-based
Simplex Equipment Rental, tells Lindsey Anderson about the
challenges of working in modern-day Quebec and why the
company is refocusing its business on aerial platforms and
industrial forklifts.
André Véronneau, president and CEO
of Simplex Equipment Rental.
One of the company’s
maintenance facilities
in Montreal.
