Spanish steps

Ivan Papell, the managing director of the newly combined Zooom and DK Rental businesses in Spain - which will be branded Lavendon by 2009 - tells AI that it is inevitable that the spectacular growth in Spanish access fleets over the past six years will inevitably slow down, but the market will still be good.

"Residential construction has declined, and will continue to do so", he says, "but non-residential is still growing...It will not be as strong as the last 4-6 years, but there is still room for growth."

Mr Papell, who came to the Lavendon business from DK Rentals Spanish operation, says the company's headquarters will move to Barcelona (where DK Spain was based) from Madrid. He says the greater scale of the business has meant that utilisation at the Zooom fleet is 10% higher now than it was a year ago, and says the merged business is "operating above expectations."