Latest News

So that’s how they built the Leadenhall Building
Wednesday 19 June 2013

A ceremony to mark the building of the latest addition to London’s skyline was held yesterday. At A-Plant we are extremely proud to have supplied equipment during the construction of this remarkable building which is a joint venture between British Land and Canadian company Oxford Properties.

Nicknamed the ‘Cheesegrater’, The Leadenhall Building has now reached a staggering 224m (734ft) in height and a time lapse video of this great engineering feat has been produced by Raftery and Lowe.

Making The Leadenhall Building from Paul Raftery and Dan Lowe on Vimeo.

This is just one of the many major projects team in London that A-Plant has been involved with, including Crossrail, the Olympic and Paralympic Games and St Bart’s Hospital. Click here to find out more about how our London Major Projects Team can help you.
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A-Plant Highlights its Commitment to Staff Development
Monday 17 June 2013

A-Plant, the leading tool, plant and equipment hire company, has invested in the company’s sales staff by conducting a series of development courses with over 100 A-Plant front-line sales staff. The bespoke courses have been designed to help the sales teams get the best from Plan-it, A-Plant’s newly-developed Sales Planning application. Plan-it is a fully integrated CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system which reflects real-time updates on a PC, tablet or mobile device.

Course objectives are designed to ensure the sales teams are more effective and efficient from a customer point of view and best placed to offer solutions which focus on delivering exceptional Customer Service, as well as understanding their impact on the company’s bottom line.

A-Plant’s Marketing and Strategic Accounts Director Asif Latief commented: “People are the lifeblood of A-Plant and we recognise the need to invest in our staff despite the challenging economic conditions. We believe our sales teams should go deeper than just making the sale, therefore the courses are designed to give them more customer awareness, understanding the importance of the customer, and why they are part of the experience. It is important for them to communicate what differentiates A-Plant from our competitors and hopefully enable price to be less of a driver, instead focus on our added value attributes.

“We have a ‘Customer First’ culture which is ingrained throughout the business and last year we launched our Customer Experience Programme, rolling out a series of workshops to Service Centre Managers ...
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A-Plant Wins Major Contract with Environment Agency
Wednesday 5 June 2013

A-Plant is celebrating after being awarded a sole supply contract for non-operated and operated plant to the Environment Agency. The leading plant, tool and specialist equipment hire company has secured the National Plant Hire contract for 3 years with an option to extend up to a further year.

A-Plant will provide a full range of equipment and services, covering excavators, pumps, telehandlers, rollers, accommodation and generators of various sizes.

The equipment will be required on short, medium and long term hire with some equipment needing to be available on a 24/7 hire basis.

Following a rigorous tender process, A-Plant was awarded the contract based on its proven commitment to Quality, Environment, Health and Safety, innovation, investment, range of equipment and IT systems.

Over the last 12 months A-Plant has invested heavily in new equipment including a recent £27 million order for 800 machines with leading manufacturer JCB. This on-going investment in fleet ensures that customers can always hire equipment which meets or exceeds the latest safety standards.

A-Plant has one of the most robust and integrated Safety Management Systems within the industry and was the first national rental company in Europe to achieve dual certification to both the ISO 14001:2004 standard and OHSAS 18001:2007 specification covering Health and Safety and Environmental procedures and accreditation to the quality standard ISO 9001:2008.

Many A-Plant customers are also utilising its IT reporting capabilities available through the company’s Extranet. They can obtain consolidated information for all transactions with A-Plant, regardless of what equipment was hired and which A-Plant location was ...
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A-Plant Acrow Launches Dedicated Website
Wednesday 29 May 2013

Leading formwork and falsework hire company A-Plant Acrow has launched its first dedicated website at http://acrow.aplant.com to give customers online access to a wealth of product information about the company’s extensive Acrow range.

A-Plant’s Marketing Manager Chris Nicholls said: “Our new Acrow website has been created to allow customers to not just find out about our product range but also learn about the many projects we have supported through an extensive library of case studies.”

“We’ve also included an interactive catalogue, our recently produced film on the re-building of the Northside Bridge in Cumbria, links to social media channels, the latest Acrow news, a number of downloads, and contact information for all our Acrow depots, “ he continued.

Acrow National Sales Director Matt Galley adds: “The new website provides us with an online platform to really showcase what we can offer as a business. What’s more, regular users will be able to discover more about the latest projects we’re supporting, industry topics, find out about job opportunities and all news related to Acrow”.

Matt continues: “This is an exciting time for A-Plant Acrow as the launch of the website coincides with an internal deployment of iPads to our field sales team. On their iPads the team can now update technical drawings whilst with customers, linking direct to our drawing offices to adjust drawings in real time in front of the customer. Already trialled in certain districts this has dramatically reduced ...
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A-Plant Orders 800 JCB Machines worth £27 Million
Friday 24 May 2013

A-Plant has placed an order with leading equipment manufacturer JCB for 800 machines in a deal worth more than £27 million.

The order has been placed as part of a huge fleet of micro, mini and midi excavators and loadall and telescopic handlers, bringing a big boost for JCB’s British factories, where all the machines will be made. Delivery of the new fleet to A-Plant’s extensive UK depots network begins this month through JCB dealer Greenshields JCB.

The latest deal comes on the back of 550 machines ordered by A-Plant last year bringing the company’s orders brought to date to 7500 machines in a trading relationship with JCB stretching back 25 years.

Director – Purchasing and Fleet Management for A-Plant, Andrew Winlow, said: “A Plant is committed to offering its customers the newest, most productive, innovative and fuel-efficient machines on the market, and this order fulfils that promise.

“With the Loadalls powered by the innovative Ecomax engine, A-Plant and its customers both benefit; customers will use less fuel and A-Plant won’t be faced with the expense of maintaining diesel particulate filters or the addition of Ad Blu to the engine.

“A-Plant has been doing business now with JCB for 25 years and from a single machine purchase in 1988, the business relationship has grown into a real partnership between us, JCB and Greenshields JCB. We continue to be positive about future market growth and that is underlined by the size of our investment in JCB machines.”

Among ...
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A-Plant Celebrates Success at Winning ‘Hire Company of the Year Award’
Friday 17 May 2013

A-Plant one of the UK’s largest Plant, Tool and Equipment hire companies has been crowned ‘Hire Company of the Year’ at this year’s prestigious Hire Association Europe (HAE) Hire Awards of Excellence. Designed to recognise excellence throughout the Hire Industry the HAE awards are the industry’s most sought after accolades.

A-Plant was subjected to a rigorous judging process which scrutinised customer service levels and policies, point-of-sale materials, employee training plans, safety procedures and industry certification. The company was even subjected to a mystery shopping programme in order to demonstrate that all important criteria were being correctly applied and demonstrated to customers. The award was announced on Saturday 27^th April at the Savoy Hotel in London and was accepted by A-Plant’s Procurement Director, Andrew Winlow.

Commenting on the award, Marketing & Strategic Accounts Director Asif Latief said; “This is excellent news and we are delighted to have won the Hire Company of the Year award. The award comes at an exciting time for A-Plant and has recognized our role as the best in the equipment hire industry. Our innovative and ability to diversify our products drives us in a more sustainable direction to support our customers across the UK.

The award is a reflection of the culture we have worked hard to create at A-Plant- one which puts safety right at the top of the agenda and ensures that we deliver the highest customer service standards every time.

It’s through the ...
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