Hook goes to a hire level
15 Jan 2000
A NatWest-funded management buy-in has created one of the UK's largest industrial utility hire companies. Longville Group, formed by former Andrew Sykes chief executive Eric Hook, brings together water extraction, power and refrigeration services.
The £80million deal, of which NatWest supplied £30million, involved the acquisition of SLD Pumps, the UK market leader in water extraction and jetting hire; SLD Genlite, which rents large generators to civil engineering, industrial and event organising customers, and Chiller Rental Services, which specialises in water and temperature cooling equipment, along with ice rinks. The three companies have a total turnover in the region of £40million.
`Prospects for growth are considerable, especially as the trend towards outsourcing encourages customers to hire equipment rather than buy,' says Hook (see p43).
