IRNAPRIL-MAY 2014
55
HEWDEN INTERVIEW
Logistics are an important element of
the next day delivery guarantee on the core fleet.
Although the core fleet has been taking a lot of investment
Hewden is still spending on its other businesses, including
£9million this year on 14 new Tadano cranes.
In addition, and like several other big rental
companies in the UK, Hewden’s depot network has
been completely redesigned. In 2008, before the
sale of its tool hire business to Speedy Hire, it had
a network of around 300 locations. That fell to 120
after the tool sale but it is nowmuch smaller, with
a new hub and spoke structure with 35 locations,
including nine large hubs and 10 ‘in-plant’ locations
atmajor industrial sites.
The footprint is geared to providing coverage of
every market area within two hours. “Customers
don’tmindwhere thedepot is”, saysMr Schofield.
Ease of doing business
Other initiatives are also underway, many reflecting
Hewden’s desire to increase the ease of doing
business.
So, Hewden now publishes rental pricing on its
website and updates the prices everyweek (with no
London weighting); it stipulates two delivery prices
for core products - £75 for large products and £50
for small.
“Customers were saying to us that they wanted
transparency”, says Jeff Schofield. What has been
the impact of publishing the prices? “We’re not
disappointed”, he says, “We’re not stopping it [the
policyof publishing theprices online].”
Other ‘transparency’ policies include offering
customers a flat charge for insurance and damage
protection, whichmeans that a customerwill not be
charged if awindow is brokenor abeaconmissing.
In addition, what Jeff Schofield calls a “genuine”
eCommerce capability, with customers able to book
through thewebsite or Hewden App, is coming later
this year.
Thebackground toall theseactivities isabusiness
that has been loss-making for several years. These
losseswere significantwhen Finning soldHewden to
the private equity firm Sun Capital Partners in May
2010. DarrenWoodssaysHewden ismakingprogress
on reducing these losses, with thepotential tomove
towards break-even in 2014/15.
He says improvements in the UK economy and
sectors like housebuilding, although obviously
welcome, havenot been themain reasonbehind the
recent upturn in Hewden’s business, with the core
fleet guaranteehelpingdrive activity.
“We feel that a lotof thepain isbehindus. Now it is
starting to grow”, he says, “For the last twomonths
we’ve hit our budgets, and that has not been led by
market uplift.”
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