Adaptability Helps PAL Hire Achieve Best Year Yet

Adaptability in business has always been important but perhaps never more so than during the last year. For local tool and equipment hire company PAL Hire, their flexible business model and adaptable way of working has helped the company record their best year yet. I Love Bramhall met up with Co-Director Dan Daintry to find out more.

For almost all industries, Covid-19 has created unprecedented challenges and the hire industry hasn’t escaped unscathed. When the news broke last March that the country was to be locked down, our local hire specialists PAL Hire – like the majority of businesses – sent everyone home in line with recommendations.

Forward-looking business

Fortunately, the forward-looking business already had everything in place for homeworking, so the majority of staff were able to continue with their jobs at home. Soon after, the government announced the Hire sector as a key industry, and work at the Hazel Grove office could recommence with Covid-safe measures in place.

“There were challenges in 2020, of course, but we were well-prepared,” says Dan. “As a business we were set up to work from home, so we were able to move seamlessly and quickly with minimal disruption.”

Providing plant hire and equipment for building sites, events and waste removal, PAL Hire suddenly found its services in demand in different ways, as supermarkets scrambled to create safe queuing systems and Covid testing sites opened up all over the country.

“Right at the start of the coronavirus crisis we won a contract with Tesco to put up barriers on 900 sites,” Dan says. “Because our USP is unlimited availability, we were able to coordinate our suppliers and fulfil the job within 48 hours.”

Supplying Key Worker Sites

The company has also been supplying key worker sites, providing facilities such as cabins and toilet blocks for Covid testing and vaccination sites, and even branched out into new equipment lines such as hand gel, dispensers and vaccination pods to serve the country’s pressing needs.

“Our responsive business model works like a cooperative: if stock is available we will find it, and our buying power means we can pass on the savings to our customers. The excellent relationships we have with suppliers means that we are able to meet these new and changing demands.” Dan adds.

Alongside meeting the needs of the country and helping life tick over with as little disruption as possible, PAL Hire has placed great importance on looking after the needs of its staff, too. A difficult year has hit employees hard across the country,but the team at PAL Hire has been determined to keep up morale.

Dan says he and Co-Director Sam Snelson are committed to creating the right environment for staff to flourish and feel supported, even organising Christmas gifts with individual contents given to the staff and awards ceremony to keep spirits up over the festive season.

Staff gifts at Christmas time.

“Our biggest success stories are our people,”he says “The team has really stuck together to help make the last year our best yet – so much so that we’ve even been able to recruit six new members of staff.”

Positive Growth

Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, PAL Hire is experiencing remarkably positive growth, taking on lots of new SME clients over the last year and also signing up big businesses like BT and Virgin Media.

The attraction for many clients is not only the ability to find the equipment they need, fast, but to be able to arrange everything in a single phone call and, at the end of a job, pay a single bill. For customers with multiple sites, the time saving is potentially enormous – and as we all know, time is money.

“Our processes speed up efficiency of a site and our core product promise means that more than 200 products can be with our clients in just 24 hours – or five hours if expedited,” Dan says.

Sam Snelson and Dan Daintry

Another way PAL Hire supports its customers is through its industry news and insights hub, Skip Hire and Waste Magazine, which is set for a refresh over the next few years. Also on the cards is the launch of brand new and exciting online resource Toolkit, which will bring together the best news, reviews and how-tos of tools and equipment.

Set for its grand unveiling later this year, Toolkit will be a modern one-stop-shop of content, giveaways and more – we can’t wait to check it out!

In the meantime, for all your waste removal and equipment hire needs, PAL Hire are ready and able to help – use the links below to find out more or to contact the team directly:

• Find: Unit 7 Rhino Court, Station View, Hazel Grove, SK7 5ER.
• Phone: 0844 288 7265
• Facebook: PAL Hire
• LinkedIn: PAL Hire
• Twitter: @palhire
• YouTube: PAL Hire
• Instagram: team_pal
• Website: www.palhire.co.uk/

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