UK rigging and inspection services company Lloyds British Testing has sold off its rigging hire business for £3.1m ($5.7m) to tool hire company Speedy Lifting.
‘The key reason it has not delivered its potential was lack of investment,’ said Mark Whitworth, Speedy Lifting managing director. He added that Speedy would invest up to £5m in new products, and expand from its strength in construction to reach customers in manufacturing. Colin Naylor, a Lloyds British director, is moving to Speedy to manage the operation.
Speedy is forecasting sales revenue of £22m for the 2005-6 tax year. The Lloyds business’s projected sales revenue is £4m.
Lloyds British Testing, formerly Lloyds Equipment Group, was first formed in 1999 when KCI Konecranes sold off its equipment hire business. Since it has acquired a testing business, a crane builder and an engineering company. ‘Lloyds Hire was not the core activity of Lloyds British,’ Whitworth said.
‘The acquisition of Lloyds by Speedy is a natural consolidation within an industry which has been over-supplied for some years now,’ Lifting Gear Hire operations director Paul Fulcher told Hoist in a statement.
Richard Dey, managing director of A-Plant Tool Hire, disputed this statement. ‘Lifting is a big opportunity,’ he said. A-Plant is planning to develop a lifting offering in its expanding tool hire business.
Fulcher of LGH also said that the acquisition had another benefit for the industry. ‘We are pleased that the acquisition has provided the tool hire industry with the opportunity to begin improving its technical lifting skills which we feel are, unfortunately, sadly lacking.’
