Bruce Graham

I have recently had two interesting conversations, one with an accountant and the other with a bank manager, both younger men than me and both with no real recollection of the severity of the recession in the early nineties. That recession lasted for at least four years, during which time our turnover halved and we lost a lot of good customers with well run companies who were forced into receivership. I vividly remember regularly reading stories of wrecked lives and shattered families within the construction industry.

During this latest recession, caused by a totally different set of circumstances, our turnover was reduced but I’m pleased to see that the majority of our customers are emerging with a healthy workload, which is not an accident. I’m fairly sure that like us there has been a lot of operational reviewing, rationalisation and a renewed focus on sales and marketing and customer retention.

Interestingly, even though the economic growth figures last year have been encouraging across many industries, it is construction that is leading the recovery outperforming all other sectors by a ratio of 5:1. What remains to be seen is the effect on the recovery, and our industry, of the government’s proposed cuts in public spending and the fact that mortgage lending is currently half the long run average.

The Key factors to our survival have been a customer base of strong well founded companies and our own team of dedicated people

Coming out of a recession is always a good time to plan for expansion, taking advantage of natural economic growth and new business opportunities. With this in mind we have decided to improve our coverage of London and the immediate Home Counties by opening the first of possibly four new depots. We are anticipating that, as well as improving the service to our customer’s construction sites across Greater London, we can also offer them a viable alternative hire supplier for their sites in Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire.

The Hireman has now experienced two major recessions in its 25 year history and I’m sure that among the key factors to our survival has been a customer base of strong well founded companies and our own team of dedicated people who work tirelessly day in and day out to get the job done.

Recessions are a part of the economic cycle and hopefully with the worst of this one behind us we can now modestly look forward again to growth and stability in the future - we have after all, seen it all before