The attractions of specialty rentals

Specialty rental - offering customised equipment and service packages for specific end-uses, offers high returns, writes Belinda Smart.

Specialty rentals have grown in recent years as companies expand their offering to include specialist services - in areas such as site preparation, tanker services, power, temperature control, trenching or rail services – which typically promise higher returns than standard rental products.

Specialty does require high levels of expertise and capital-intensive equipment, but it’s also a clear value-add. When Ashstead-owned Sunbelt Rentals posted a 7.5% decline in revenue in its fiscal third quarter ended January 31 2021 compared to the same period in the previous year as a result of the pandemic, it confirmed that the decline had been mitigated by its specialty businesses.

In fact, “the specialty businesses demonstrated the benefit of a broader range of products and end markets with rental only revenue 10% higher than last year.”

The attractiveness of specialty business can also be gauged by the interest it is generating among private equity businesses, most recently in the case of power renter Aggreko, but also the merger in March of National Trench Safety (NTS) and Trench Plate Rental Company (TPRC) in the US, organised by private equity firm Tailwind Capital...Sign in to continue reading.