Access Plus plans to open in England

Access Plus, the Ayrshire, Scotland based access rental company, is planning to enter the English access rental market in early 2009, probably in the north east.

The company, founded by George Marriott in 1998, is to use a ‘hub and spoke' strategy to expand its network to between five and eight locations within the next two years, with depots in the north east of England and a second Scottish location in Glasgow the top of the agenda.

Access Plus - which also uses the Magic Carpet Hire brand for its website - has specialised in working in public and commercial buildings such as hospitals, schools and shopping centres. Its fleet of 280 machines includes 80 Leonardo vertical mast units manufactured by Braviisol of Italy, which is claimed to be the third largest Leonardo fleet in Europe.

"We'll keep the focus on schools and big hospitals", George Marriott told Access International, "There is a lot going on down south, and we see opportunities to open depots down there." The company currently operates from a single location in Stevenston, on the coast an hour's drive west of Glasgow.

The company is not planning an aggressive expansion into larger machines, and will retain its focus on smaller and mid-size units; "We've been good at that", said Mr Marriott, "My vision is to be like a bridge between HSS and Nationwide Access".

Dave Hall, a director and shareholder of Access Plus, said the company would grow cautiously; "The last thing we want is an aggressive move against everyone...we don't see this as an aggressive strategy to take market share. We would say we are an ambitious company, but it is a realistic growth strategy founded on sound business practices."

Mr Marriott said in early July that the company had noticed a slight softening of the market. "We don't think its doom and gloom", said Mr Hall, "We anticipate some projects will take longer to approve, but we still think they will happen."