Power and temperature control rental giant Aggreko was named 2008 Rental Company of the Year at the European Rental Awards presented in Manchester, U.K., by the European Rental Association and International Rental News.
Aggreko won the award for companies with more than 10 “depots” over other finalists U.K.-based A-Plant and Norway’s Malthus. Aggreko’s achievements in 2008 included power and temperature control contracts for the Beijing Olympics, where it supplied 140 MW of power, the European football championships and the Super Bowl as well as the inauguration of Barack Obama. During the year it also won contracts for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games and is now operating on the site of the 2012 London Olympic Games. It acquired the power rental operations of Cummins in India and acquired a Canadian rental company that supplies power to the Alberta Oil Sands project. Based in Glasgow, with U.S. headquarters in Houston, Aggreko is No. 10 on the RER 100.
Awarded as Rental Company of the Year (10 depots or less) was Sweden’s Lipac Liftar AB, an aerial rental specialist with 650 units rented from seven locations in the central region of Sweden. The company has doubled its volume during the past four years. It has made significant environmental advances, using vegetable hydraulic oils for its entire rental fleet, and replaced conventional diesel fluid with EcoPar fuel, which decreases carbon dioxide emissions by up to 50 percent.
The Rental Product of the Year award was given to Haulotte for its H28TJ, a telescopic boom with a 5-meter long telescopic fly jib, combining the reach of a telescopic model with the ability to reach inaccessible spots using the fly jib.
The ERA/IRN Rental Person of the Year is Mendes Migotto, managing director of Gruppo Venpa3, the largest rental company in Italy with more than 50 branches or joint venture companies in Italy and Eastern Europe. The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to George Burnett, co-founder and former CEO of Ashtead Group, which owns U.K.’s A-Plant and Fort Mills, S.C.-based Sunbelt Rentals.
