Member Article

Partnership drives in year-on-year growth for Kent-headquartered Hydraquip Group

Hydraquip Group has announced plans for further expansion of its commercial vehicle operation in 2016, with help from Ogilvie Fleet.

The Kent-headquartered hose and hydraulic equipment company has seen year-on-year growth since it first launched at the turn of the century. Having begun with just two mobile hose repair vans, Hydraquip is now the largest national independent fleet operator of mobile hose service vans with staff based in multiple locations nationwide.

The company has seen its fleet expand annually to more than 140 vehicles and the vast majority are vans driven by mobile engineers, who work out of Hydraquip’s 20 branches nationwide and from remote bases across the UK.

The current 93 mobile engineers’ vans, almost exclusively Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 313 CDI hi-roof models operated on three-year/120,000-mile contract hire with maintenance replacement cycles, are supplied by Ogilvie Fleet.

The Hydraquip Group has now placed a rolling order for two new Sprinters each month throughout 2016.

Company founder and managing director Duncan MacBain said the vans - more could be ordered during 2016 if business growth demands - would both further expand the fleet and replace ageing vehicles to take the number of units operated to around 120.

Mr MacBain explained: “Previously Ogilvie Fleet has supplied the vans and we have then arranged for them to be kitted out to meet our own high requirements. However, Ogilvie Fleet’s no hassle approach to business and competitive pricing made it more attractive for us to take delivery of fully equipped vehicles.”

The remainder of the fleet is composed of 19 company cars and 28 branch-based delivery vans which the Hydraquip Group presently outright purchase.

The Hydraquip Group has expanded from one branch in Crawley, West Sussex, through a combination of organic growth and acquisition and 2016, said Mr MacBain, was expected to mark a further sea-change in the scale of the business with plans for a further four branches announced.

“We are on an aggressive recruitment drive in 2016 and that means further fleet expansion. Additionally, corporate image is critical for the Hydraquip Group so it is vital that we have a modern, smart vehicle fleet,” he said.

“We are standardising our mobile engineer fleet around the Sprinter because the model has proved itself to be very reliable, durability is superb and our employees find it an enjoyable vehicle to drive.”

Critically, Mercedes-Benz dealers used by the Hydraquip Group for service, maintenance and repair work offer through the night servicing with Mr MacBain explaining: “The Sprinter’s enduring reliability coupled with out-of-hours servicing availability means that vehicle downtime during the working day is kept to an absolute minimum, which aids our ability to offer top-notch customer service.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .