54
HEWDEN INTERVIEW
IRNAPRIL-MAY 2014
centrality of the core fleet to the business – can be
judgedby the fact that aroundhalf of thecompany’s
total revenues are now generated by core products,
and £45 million of the £63 million fleet investment
this yearwill be in the core fleet.
MrWoods says the ‘core’machinesnow represents
around 4500 units in the 20000 unit total fleet, and
is likely togrow to5000over thenext fewyears and
to6000over a longer timescale.
£180million investment
The £63 million fleet investment this year will be
followedby£60million ineachof thenext twoyears
– bringing spending over the 2014-16 period to £180
million. This level of spending will also help expand
the fleet following the significant downsizing that
followed the financial crisis.
“This year it’s not about growing the fleet, it’s
about themix and bringing the average age down”,
saysMrWoods, “Next yearwewill start growing.”
The plan now is to add products to the core
Hewden says its ‘Core Fleet
Guarantee’ is increasing
utilisation and successfully
generatingmore business
with small andmedium sized
customers. MurrayPollok
reports.
H
ewden is reporting success with the Core
Fleet Guarantee project it introduced in
March 2013, and is now building on the
programme by adding to the range of products in
thecore fleet and investingheavily innewmachines.
Under the initiative Hewden offers next day
delivery on its 30 most popular products –
excavators, telehandlers, site dumpers, rollers
and aerial platforms. Any machine ordered before
midday is guaranteed for delivery by the following
morning, whileanorder placedbetweenmiddayand
5.00pmwill bedeliveredbefore5.00pm thenext day.
The rational was two-fold: to make it easier for
companies to order the most important products,
and to target small andmedium sized and regional
customers, many of whom may have felt that
Hewdenwas focusedon larger customers.
Hewden says that in the almost 12 months since
the launch of the guarantee it has made 35145
core fleet deliveries, of which 99.8% have met the
delivery times. Where thedelivery is late, customers
receive a £100 rebate and a letter of apology from
Hewden’s CEOKevinParkes.
Darren Woods, Hewden’s chief financial officer,
tells
IRN
that this rebate had to be paid out about
20 times in the firstmonth – costingHewdenaround
£2000 – and the number has been kept at similar or
lower levels ever since.
The guarantee has clearly struck a chordwith the
target audience: spending by small and medium
sized customers has increased by more than 10%
since April 2013, and the physical utilisation of the
core fleet – which has grown in size – has increased
from53% tomore than60%now.
The importance of the initiative – and the
Corepromise
Hewden guarantees next
day delivery on 30 ‘core
fleet’ products. Selected
portable accommodation
units will be added to the
programme later this year.
This one of Hewden’s nine ‘hub’ depots. It has a national network
of 35 locations, including 10 in-plant’ sites.
fleet programme, with 15 standard portable
accommodation units to be added later this year,
says Jeff Schofield, Hewden’s sales and marketing
director.
Hewden is aware of the dangers of focusing
exclusively on the core fleet to the detriment of
Hewden’s other businesses, including its cranes,
power generation andportable accommodation.
It continues to invest in these areas, which help
support Hewden’s business with major clients on
projects like industrial plant maintenance. For
example, investment this year onnon-core products
includes £9million on 14 new Tadanomobile cranes.
Hewden remains a big player in crane rental, with a
fleet of 130 cranes. “We offer a credible alternative
toAinscough”, saysMr Schofield.
The core fleet guarantee may be the ‘headline’
initiativeat thecompany,but it takesplacealongside
other developments, such as investment in a new IT
system that has given it the real-time visibility of
assets that supports thedelivery guarantee.
The fleet has also been rationalised: for example,
four years ago Hewden had around 280 different
types of aerial platform. The 1100 unit aerials fleet
now is focused on 35 main products, of which
around nine are in the core fleet – these nine types
represent around950of the aerials fleet.
