Views from Spain

No stopping Umesa

If there is a fear that, after five years of heavy investment, Spanish rental companies may soon face an oversupply of machines, it doesn't seem to be stopping several of the big names from continuing to spend heavily in more equipment. For example, Umesa, the Barcelona-based access rental specialist, has been growing steadily for the past five years, and the company's managing director, Gaspar Puig, (pictured right) is forecasting continued expansion.

He tells Access International that turnover in 2005 will increase by up to 22% to between ⋹32 and ⋹33 million and he plans this year to add a further two depots in the south of Spain to join the nine locations already operated by the company. Umesa will also add around 400 to 450 machines to its fleet during the year-the company already owns more than 2000 lifts.

What about pricing pressures? “Prices up to now have decreased, not a lot, a bit”, he acknowledges, “But now they have stabilised. Our current policy on pricing is to try to increase them a little.”

He says that the overall fleet size in Spain may be increasing but that levels of demand are keeping pace. And there is still room to increase the penetration of access, he says.