Liebherr's in good rental health

Liebherr Rental's fleet will feature some of the manufacturer's bigger excavators, reflecting its UK sales.

What's your idea of the ideal plant hire company? One that can provide almost anything from an 8t excavator to a 120t demolition rig, or from a single drum roller to a tunnel boring machine, and that has nationwide coverage with the full backing of the plant manufacturers? Then look no further, Liebherr Rental is here.

Liebherr Rental will offer a range of equipment from its very largest machines down to excavators, rollers and articulated dump trucks. As the manufacturer doesn't produce these machines itself, they will be provided under a partnership with Neuson, Hamm and Bomag and Bell respectively. Liebherr's latest addition, telehandlers, will be among the machines on offer and Paul Clark, general manager of the rental business, has ordered an initial 10 units. He will be taking delivery of around 60 machines in 2008, about half being excavators - the biggest will be a 974 high-reach demolition rig tipping the scales at 120t. The mix will also include wheeled units and road railers.

Specialist markets

Other machines on order include wheel and tracked loaders, dozers and even a tunnelling machine due in 2009. One obvious omission from the range is cranes of any description. Despite this mix of equipment, Stefan Heissler, UK managing director of both Liebherr Rental Ltd and Liebherr Great Britain, says there are no plans to tackle the UK's mass hire market head-on. Clark says the composition of the fleet reflects the manufacturer's UK sales and reinforces the message that it is aiming at the specialist markets. Only top-spec machines will find their way on to the fleet and will be fitted with such extras as hammer, rotation and drain piping, and all applicable units will be fitted with Liebherr's Likufix quick couplers. These dedicated couplers connect an attachment hydraulically as well as mechanically without the operator leaving the cab.

This plays well with Clark's strategy of having a range of two or three attachments for each machine, including Atlas Copco breakers, shears and pulverisers. "In many situations an attachment will get you the job - you can then provide the carrier to go behind it," says Clark, who joined Liebherr from attachment specialist Demarec.

While Liebherr Rental will boast a fleet of top-spec machines, Heissler says the rental rates will be competitive - because they have to be. "There's no point in saying we have fantastic rates with a yard full of machines," he says.

That said, Clark doesn't envisage sending a machine out for under a week unless the customer collects it and delivers it back to the depot at the end of the hire.

The rental organisation will be based at Liebherr Great Britain's HQ in Biggleswade, where considerable changes are being made to accommodate the new fleet. Rental machines will be spread across all Liebherr's other depots in Cannock, Wigan, Bathgate, Aberdeen and Bristol.

In 2009, there should be an additional depot in the South East and in time each depot could have its own hire controller. "We have to have somebody in the area so they know what's going on in the region," says Heissler.

"Currently, there is one national telephone number for rental, but this will be supplemented by direct lines into each depot for local and regional customers.

In readiness for the new fleet, and to improve its own aftersales service, Liebherr is recruiting service engineers at the rate of about one a month. "You have to set up the aftersales organisation before sales or rental can happen, because you have to get somebody to a breakdown in four hours," Heissler explains.

Liebherr's UK rental operation mirrors that set up in Germany around 10 years ago, which subsequently expanded into France, Spain and Italy. "Our aim is to increase the number of Liebherr machines on UK sites and Germany wanted to expand its rental operation into the UK," says Heissler.

While he is managing director of both the sales and rental operations, which are both headquartered in Biggleswade, the rental business reports into the German rental company and not the UK sales operation.

European operation

Clark says one of the benefits of being part of Liebherr Rental's European operation (which is also being expanded into Eastern Europe) is access to its fleet of over 3,000 machines in addition to his UK machines. He expects to keep machines on his fleet for between three and five years or 5,000 hours. De-fleeted machines will be used to prime Liebherr's second-hand sales in the UK.

Liebherr Rental is largely targeting companies that are traditionally plant owners. Clark said these customers often have short-term needs for equipment to meet deadlines, cover for broken machines or at the start-up or end of a contract or working area.

Heissler adds that the decision concerning whether to rent or buy is also swayed by market conditions, so a customer may want to buy one year and rent the next.

Clark says he can offer companies not wanting to own their own machinery a full package of hiring and leasing options, although taking on a customer's operators (such as Alfred McAlpine or Hydrex) is not currently in the mix.

How will Heissler gauge if the rental operation is a success? First, he is expecting a turnover of around £1.5m in year one (Clark is predicting utilisation between 60% and 80%). His second definition is simple: "Happy customers." Now there's a trick if you can pull it off.