JUNE | ME, MYSELF & I
Gordon Mckay
The Managing Director of Sunbelt Rentals
Engineered Access tells us how his company has
adapted to weather the storm of Covid-19
Interview by: Stuart Wood
Sunbelt Rentals is
a subsidiary of the
Ashtead Group, a
UK-based supplier
of plants, power,
traffic management
and more. Ashtead
had an operating
income of £1.3bn in
2019, and is listed on
the FTSE 100.
How is Sunbelt managing the
Covid crisis so far?
From an events perspective,
clearly all suppliers and customers
are feeling the incredible pain of
Covid-19.
The events sector is quite unique
in that, because of the inflexibility
of our deadlines, it’s not unusual
for competitors to work together.
We sometimes use outsourced
resources or pool ideas to make
projects successful. It’s about
teamwork and being responsible.
We’re seeing this throughout
the sector now as companies who
would usually be in full swing for
the festival season are scratching
around for work, but all are pulling
together to try and keep themselves
and others busy.
We’ve been able to diversify
and offer our extensive project
management experience to areas
that need it. For example, we’ve
supported the build of over 40
temporary Covid-19 testing sites
with traffic management, barriers,
trakway, power and lighting. We’ve
essentially been able to offer a full
turn-key emergency response.
How are you planning for when the
outdoor events sector comes back
to life?
We are having more resource
capacity than usual in the summer
months, but it is no different to that
of a typical winter and therefore for
us it is very much business as usual.
We will continue to use this extra
resource responsibly and seek to
make our customer service and our
offering even better when the event
workbook returns.
What can other suppliers learn
from you?
One value that I was taught early
in my trakway career is to treat
every customer the same, look after
your staff and never be arrogant or
overconfident – you’re only as good
as your last job.
Engineered Access, as it is now
following our rebrand from A-plant,
has a 350-strong expert team made
up of people who have been through
decades of trakway business. No
matter what is going on with the
economic landscape or the festival
industry, we have to look to the
future, invest responsibly and
always deliver to our customers’
expectations.
“We’ve supported the build of over 40 temporary
Covid-19 testing sites with traffic management,
barriers, trakway, power and lighting.”
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