A-Plant invests £24m in fleet

UK rental company A-Plant has placed orders for new equipment worth over £24 million (US$38 million), part of a "£60 million plus" investment programme for the 2011/12 financial year.

A-Plant, sister company to Sunbelt Rentals and owned by Ashtead Group, said it planned to sustain that level of investment over the next five years, with £330 million ($520 million) investment scheduled.

On the firm's recent purchase order are dumpers, excavators, pedestrian rollers and forklift telehandlers, supplied by manufacturers such as Doosan, Terex and JCB.

Substantial investment has also been made in a wide range of powered access equipment, including diesel scissor lifts, diesel booms, electric booms and electric scissor lifts manufactured by Genie, JLG and Niftylift.

A-Plant has also ordered compressors from Doosan and CompAir worth more than £2.3 million ($3.6 million) and more than £3 million ($4.7 million) of GenSet generators from 10 kVA to 300 kVA.

The £24 million order follows a £26 million ($41 million) investment in September 2011. A-Plant plans to invest over £330 million ($520 million) in new equipment over the next five years.

Sat Dhaiwal, chief executive officer of A-Plant, said: "At A-Plant we recognise that customers want the most recent and best quality machines - investment in this equipment will help to achieve this.

"We understand that it is crucial to involve everyone in high-profile investment decisions such as this and so ensured we underwent an extensive consultation with our staff at the sharp end to identify what equipment was required to increase customer satisfaction and deal with customer demand.

"What's more, over the next five years we plan to invest over £330 million in new equipment to ensure that we have one of the youngest most extensive and state-of-the-art fleets of equipment in the hire industry."