U.K.’s A-Plant Acquires Hoist Rental Company GB Access
A-Plant, one of the largest equipment rental companies in the U.K. and sister company to Sunbelt Rentals, has acquired GB Access, a specialist provider of hoist rental equipment. As a result of the acquisition, A-Plant now owns one of the largest rental fleets of Alimak and Stros construction hoists.
GB Access will operate as an independent business within A-Plant’s Specialist Products Division, A-Plant said. The acquisition strengthens A-Plant’s position in lifting and safety equipment and complements the offering of FLG Services, A-Plant aerial division.
“GB Access is a long-established and well-respected hirer of hoists and this acquisition affords us new capabilities to even better serve our customers who use lifting equipment,” said Richard Thomas, managing director of A-Plant’s Specialist Products Division. “We believe that the GB Access hoist hire product range, along with its dedicated team, will open up new specialist opportunities for us in this sector.”
“I am confident that the support from A-Plant and the commitment to invest in the very best equipment currently available will enable us to grow the business going forward, and will affirm and maintain this division of A-Plant as the premier hoist rental company in the U.K.,” added Pat Barford, director of GB Access.
GB Access has more than 25 years of experience in supplying solutions for the vertical transportation of operatives and materials, on construction and industrial sites, meeting the demands of both major construction companies and smaller operators. With the transaction, A-Plant has added more than 300 hoists to its fleet, as well as more than 30 service vehicles and a number of pick-up trucks and 32-tonne, 8-wheel construction chassis rigid lorries fitted with Palfinger lorry-mounted cranes.
A-Plant, based in Warrington, U.K., is owned by Ashtead Group plc, as is Sunbelt Rentals.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.