Locally-owned HB Platform Hire was established in 2004 and has a record of making healthy revenue surpluses – with net profit growing by 39.8 percent over the past two full financial years.

HB Platform Hire’s catalogue of height access equipment includes rough terrain four-wheel drive scissor lifts ranging in reach from eight to 12 metres, battery-powered scissor lifts ranging in reach from six to 12 metres, and self-propelled Z-booms capable of reaching heights of between 12 – 18-metres. The company’s range of machinery includes both diesel and battery-powered platform hoists.

The business operates from two Hastings premises – a 2,259 square metre yard at 304 Jervois Street with 330 square metres of equipment storage warehousing and adjacent administration offices , and a 1,089 square metre site at 207 Hastings Street North with 170 square metres of equipment storage warehousing and adjacent workshop.

The business employs four full time staff – consisting of an office manager, a qualified service technician, and two operational personnel responsible for the delivery and collection of equipment, and day-to-day machinery maintenance. Three of those staff have been with the company since it began trading.

Now with its owner looking to retire, the HB Platform Hire business has been placed on the market for sale by expressions of interest through Bayleys Napier, with offers closing at 2pm on February 22.

Bayleys Napier salesperson Rodger Howie said some $1.9 million of modern plant and equipment was included with the HB Platform Hire business offering, as well as a substantial database of commercial clients throughout greater Hawke’s Bay, a full complement of administrative and operations staff, and all back-office IT collateral and systems.

“The HB Platform Hire business has a diverse customer base in the commercial construction sector – ranging from electricians, engineers, construction and maintenance industries, through to cool store, warehousing and manufacturing, decorators, and fruit growers,” Mr Howie said.

“Changes to the construction and building workplace environment over the past decade have benefitted the business greatly. While large construction firms would previously have purchased mobile elevated work platform machinery in years gone by, the costs of meeting increasing compliance and health and safety regulations around usage and maintenance of equipment mean that many companies are now opting to hire out their work platform machinery instead.

“As a specialist in mobile platform and height access equipment hireage, HB Platform Hire has also benefitted from Hawke’s Bay’s healthy commercial and industrial property building boom over the past five to six years.”

As a safety-focused business, operators of HB Platform Hire equipment must have current elevated work platform (EWP) certification. Mr Howie said that in recent years HB Platform Hire had invested heavily in updating plant and machinery to keep up with growing demand.

“In addition to selling the machinery hireage business, the vendors will also consider any subsequent offers to purchase the two freehold properties from which HB Platform Hire operates. However, they will only consider offers to purchase the land and buildings in conjunction with the business,” he said.

Mr Howie said that to grow revenues to a new level, any new owner of the HB Platform Hire business could look at expanding the equipment hire range to include the likes of scaffolding, power generation, earth-moving and digging machinery, or trailer hire for example.

“The opportunity exists to build on HB Platform Hire’s exemplary reputation throughout Hawke’s Bay as a supplier of quality industrial equipment backed by knowledgeable technical staff,” he said.

“Alternatively, any new owner could look at adding on a ‘man-power’ labour hire aspect to the business – where clients could not only hire the right machinery for their height access requirements, but could also utilise the knowledge of HB Platform Hire’s experienced operators to deliver a truly ‘one stop shop’ solution.”

Trading accounts show HB Platform Hire’s sales have increased by 50 percent over the past three full years of trading – clocking in at $1.2 million on the year to March 31, 2018.

“The company trades as ‘lean’ – there are no flashy showrooms or company vehicles, so overheads are kept at minimum. Consequently, this allows the company to charge out its equipment and machine hire at extremely competitive rates,” Mr Howie said.