Hires out tracked access platforms with qualified operators or self-drive for jobs conventional machines cannot reach, serving businesses working at height, especially telecoms, rail, and utility clients.
Based in the North West, but covering the whole of the UK, this company is a powered access hire business trading for over 10 years from a single leasehold site. It runs tracked spider lift machines that pass through a standard doorway, spread their weight across lawns, paving and finished floors, and then extend to working heights from 17 meters up to 35 meters. The work is what conventional scissor lifts and cherry pickers cannot take on.
Around 70% of turnover is operated hire, where the machine, the transport and a qualified operator go out together on a day rate covering time on site, insurance, certified harnesses, and safety equipment. The remaining 30% is self-drive hire to customers holding their own certification. Every job is carried out on owned machines by employed people, with nothing sub-contracted out.
Customers are trade and commercial. The strongest positions are in telecommunications, rail infrastructure inspection and utility vegetation management, all of which generate repeat work because the same assets are revisited on maintenance and inspection cycles. Alongside those sit facilities management and cleaning contractors in shopping centres and commercial buildings, main contractors, developers, local authorities and television production.
Site surveys and berthing plans are produced in advance, setting out the access route, the risk assessment and where the machine will stand, which is what wins work with facilities managers and main contractors. Hire is carried out under CPA conditions with a signed account form from every customer.
The trailers, wagon, forklift and ground protection trackway are all owned, so a job can be surveyed, protected, delivered and worked without bringing in a third party.
The owner has been in the industry for 23 years. Seven people run it, with 27 years of service between the six employees, covering the hire desk, credit control, workshop, surveying and driving. The business does not rely on a salesperson or any marketing. Work arrives through repeat customers, trade word of mouth and referrals. The business has never spent any money on advertising or sales.
Strong financial profile
Turnover of £1.08 million in 2026, £1.04 million in 2025 and £896,050 in 2024
Adjusted EBITDA of £573,984 in 2026, £461,594 in 2025 and £312,639 in 2024
Gross margin improving from 65% to 70% across the same three years.
Approximately 70% of turnover from operated hire, at day rates above standard platform hire.
Around £185,000 of surveyed work and received purchase orders in hand at any one time
For a buyer this is an established position in a niche with real barriers to entry, a modern owned fleet and a team already in place, with the obvious routes to growth untouched.
Highlights -
Trading for over ten years in tracked access, a niche most regional access hirers do not serve
Established positions in telecommunications, rail inspection and utility vegetation management, all generating repeat maintenance and inspection work
Around 70% of turnover from operated hire, with the operator, transport and safety equipment included in the day rate
Every job is delivered on owned machines by employed operators, with no work passed out to other firms
Turnover of £1.08 million and adjusted EBITDA of £573,984 in the most recent year, both higher in each of the last three years
A settled team of seven, most of whom have been in place four years or more
No salesperson and effectively no marketing spent, with all work arriving through repeat custom and referral.
Opportunities-
A satellite depot further south. Every job outside the region carries the cost and the time of driving a heavy tracked machine there and back, which limits how far the business can quote competitively
More machines. Enquiries are turned away when the right platform is already out, and the longest reach units carry the highest day rates
Premium pricing. Out-of-hours, night shift and emergency work is already being carried out for retail, facilities and infrastructure customers, and no premium is charged for it
A first sales function. Nothing is spent on winning work, and nobody sells, yet turnover has risen every year since 2024
Bridge, structural survey and conservation work. The fleet already suits it and the rail inspection work proves the capability, but it has never been pursued
Smaller general access hirers across the north of England could be acquired and their customers moved onto tracked machines at higher day rates.
Financial Profile
Turnover IRO - £1.08 million in 2026.
Forecasted Turnover - £1.16 million in 2027.
- 100% share capital.
- Leasehold premises available, pending agreement.
- Interested parties will be required to sign an NDA.
