Vp buys again

VP, the Harrogate-based equipment hire business, has continued on the acquisition trail with the £4.5m purchase of a firm that provides equipment for utilities work.

It has bought UM (Holdings) which owns the U Mole business in Cambridgeshire.

Founded more than 20 years ago, U Mole sells and rents trenchless installation equipment to the utility contracting markets.

U Mole will operate within Vp's Groundforce division and Vp chairman Jeremy Pilkington said that its expertise in trenchless installation is complementary to Groundforce's existing expertise in providing shoring for conventional excavations.

Mr Pilkington added: “We are delighted to welcome the long established and well respected U Mole business into Vp. U Mole, operating in the regulated utilities sector with which we are familiar, provides value added services and expertise which will complement Vp's existing offering to those markets.”

Last month the group's tool hire subsidiary, Hire Station, bought Middlesbrough-based Northern Site Services for £1.6m while last November it paid £750,000 for Able Safety, which provides safety equipment rental, service and sales and confined space training from its base in Knottingley, last November.

It also bought two Irish firms, Underground Safety Services and Pipe Testing Accessories for a combined figure of £572,000 last year.