Page 35 - GAP 50th Anniversary Book

Celebrating 50 years of GAP /

Henderson Plant’s six depots had traded
under four different companies - Edinburgh
Plant (Edinburgh and Dundee), HMS
(Glasgow), Henderson Plant (Newcastle)
and Teesside Plant (Middlesbrough and
York). Specialising in tool hire, their overall
ethos was to deal only in equipment “which
would fit in the back of a transit van” - Vintage GAP equipment across
anything larger was seen as too big and the country and Henderson
Plant depot in 1986.
costly. Dealing primarily with housebuilding
sites and civil engineering jobs, Henderson
Plant’s formula had worked well for them. At the time our competitors
thought we were in financial
It soon became clear to GAP that the difficulty having to dispose of the operated
profitability of trading in tools and plant and speculated on ‘the end of the
unmanned equipment was considerably Andersons’. But undoubtedly it was one of
better than running operated plant. Adding the best decisions we ever made.”
to this the almost ‘daily hassles’ associated
with operators, GAP took the decision to Iain
dispose of all its operated plant.

“I attended an auction at Gordon Anderson Plant’s In 1988, and with Gordon approaching 70,
Linwood depot, when Gordon was selling off ALL Douglas and Iain became joint Managing
the company’s ‘operated plant’. We all thought Directors of the business. Their goal was
Gordon was mad doing this but it proved to be one clear: to achieve national coverage. The
of the shrewdest decisions he ever made.” research was carried out and a 20-year
Adam Bruce, Managing Director, AB2000 strategy put in place.

The auctioneers were called in and GAP
sold every piece of plant that required an BY 1989
operator, including 13T and 20T Excavators, NO. OF DEPOTS 15
JCB Digger Loaders, Caterpillar Bulldozers NO. OF STAFF 118
and Volvo Dump Trucks. Several hundred TURNOVER £4.4M
tonnes lighter, GAP was now redirected GBV OF TOTAL
towards unmanned plant and tools. FIXED ASSETS £5M

/ Chapter 04 35