Boels continues UK expansion

The addition of the nine Artisan and SAS depots in the west of England brings the total number of Boels branches in the UK to 38.

As previously reported, Boels has already taken over Supply UK Hire Shops in 2017 and Already Hire in April 2018.

“This is an important milestone in our ongoing expansion as an international rental company”, said Pierre Boels, chief executive of Boels Rental, of the latest deal.

“Artisan and SAS are both well-established and very successful in the southwest of England. Their acquisition can only benefit the growth strategy that Boels has for Great Britain. Although our ultimate aim is to achieve national coverage, we will focus primarily on local and regional businesses for the time being” Pierre Boels said.

He added: "We want to make sure that more and more customers are able to benefit from our high quality service provision. In the years ahead, we will focus very much on expanding our fleet and these acquisitions are an important step forward in this respect.”

The former owners of Artisan are Chris Comer and Jason King. How much they are getting for their business was not disclosed but Chris Comer said: “We are very happy to be part of the Boels family. We clicked straight away and discovered that we have the same plans for the future too. Boels is a major player in the rental market, because of which we will have the opportunity to accelerate our growth under its wing. This is possible thanks in part to the huge amount of knowledge and experience that Boels is able to share with us.”

Boels Rental has more than 400 branches across 17 European countries, with more than 4,000 employees and a turnover of €500m.

Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk