Acquisition-hungry Vp completes deal
EQUIPMENT rental group Vp today made its seventh acquisition in as many months as it paid £2.9m for a plant hire business.
The Harrogate-based group has bought Redding Hire, a Northamptonshire business founded 17 years ago that hires out and sells shoring products and plant to the construction and civil engineering sectors.
Redding will operate within Vp's Groundforce division and it said it will benefit from the wider range of services it can offer its customers as part of a larger group.
Jeremy Pilkington, chairman of Vp, said: “We are very pleased to acquire the Redding business which will further strengthen Groundforce's geographical distribution and customer base.”
Earlier this week it paid £4.5m for Cambridgeshire-based utilities equipment provider U Mole.
VP, formerly known as Vibroplant, was founded in 1954. It was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1973, and is now made up of six business divisions – each specialising in a different area of construction equipment supply.
Hire Station provides tools and specialist products for industry, construction and home owners; TPA supplies portable roadway systems, bridging, fencing and barriers; Torrent Trackside rents infrastructure equipment and services for the railway renewals and maintenance industry; Groundforce hires out excavation support systems and specialist products for the water, civil engineering and construction industries; UK Forks provides rough terrain material handling equipment for industry, residential and general construction while Airpac Bukom Oilfield Services rents out equipment in the international oil and gas exploration and development markets.
