LGH celebrates first year back in UK

Lifting Gear Hire (LGH) will this month (December) celebrate a year since returning to the UK lifting and rigging marketplace. It completes 12 months with three facilities, in Manchester, London and Aberdeen, after reaching a series of milestones throughout 2017. Ian Parkinson, chairman of LGH, said: “Since its launch in 1970, LGH has grown into a multinational company. Though absent from the UK marketplace for the last 10 years, LGH’s operations in North America and Europe continued to expand and thrive with LGH being in the top 50 U.S. hire companies for several years. Over the last 47 years, LGH has gained a breadth of experience across a variety of complex jobs, and learned new applications for new and existing products." He added: "LGH is a brand best suited to highly regulated markets with a strong emphasis on health and safety; this has given LGH a strong platform for its re-launch back into the UK market. Not only has demand exceeded expectations, compliance and accreditation issues have been achieved well ahead of schedule under Colin Naylor [managing director]. To have resurrected the brand under the same family ownership, and even at the group's former headquarters in Atherton, under a strong new management team, has been a great accomplishment."

Two widely reported highlights of the year are the acquisition of the Aberdeen, Scotland-based hire division of JD Neuhaus, making LGH the largest hirer of air hoists in Europe; and achieving the Bronze accreditation from the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS), a voluntary organisation that promotes best practice for commercial vehicle operators. However, Colin Naylor pointed to others, including publication of the Technical User Guide, a second version of which will follow in Q1 2018; associate member status with LEEA, due for upgrade to full membership early next year; and accreditation by SafeHire, a trade association with a specific focus on the plant and tool hire sector. Naylor said: “We can attribute much of our achievements this year to the determination of our staff to ensure this new venture is a success. It is also testament to the strength of the LGH brand in the UK, Europe and North America. We already have over 200 active customers and are working on some of the UK’s largest, most high profile infrastructure and construction projects.” LGH’s UK operation has invested approximately £3 million in equipment from the industry’s leading suppliers of lifting and rigging gear, all of which is covered in the aforementioned Technical User Guide. Launched in April this year, the Technical User guide is available in both hard copy and digital formats; the latter is downloadable from the website. Naylor concluded: “Our trusted and handpicked partners are innovative, market-leading manufacturers, which provide the safest and most reliable products. If a supplier meets our high standards it’s a sure sign that our customers will only be working with the best equipment. Our chosen suppliers allow us to guarantee customers safety, certainty and great service—the three pillars upon which LGH is built.”