Kelling Group secures its growth by retaining the best people and maintaining the best fleet in the UK
Kelling Group is a leading provider of specialist access and welfare equipment. CEO, Stephen Moore highlights the company’s focus: “There are two main divisions within the business, Access Hire and Welfare Hire. We are the largest provider of van mounted access platforms (VMAPs) for hire and lease in the UK. We service industries including the telecoms sector, street lighting, the power industry and councils across the country. We’ve got around 2000 assets in that part of the Group now which makes us about six times the size of the nearest generalist hire provider. We are specialists, so we know our equipment well and how to offer the best service to our clients. We offer swap out vehicles, minimise down-time and make sure we have an experienced team on the ground who know what they’re doing. We’ve got people with over 15 years’ experience and a wealth of knowledge to overcome any challenges and make sure the client’s needs are met.
“The other part of the Group is welfare, and we’re the largest provider of highly efficient eco mobile welfare units in the UK. These are eco efficient, high specification mobile welfare units that come equipped with a canteen, office space, and twin WCs. Where ours are different though is that they run off solar power with a lithium battery, back-up generator, with rainwater harvesting and telemetry, which shows clients exactly how much fuel they’re saving, what the CO₂ emissions are, as well as the servicing cost savings. These are things that are becoming increasingly important for our customers, as businesses are looking at ways to minimise their carbon footprint and improve savings and efficiencies. Welfare in general has become more important. More companies rightly want to ensure their people are well looked after, and we are seeing that trend across a number of sectors including highway maintenance, civil engineering, utilities, and the rail sector.”
Stephen moves on to outline the current position of the company as it moves through a significant growth phase: “Over the last 18 months, we’ve continued to grow, the Group now has over 4000 assets. As we continue to grow, we will continue to invest in the best, most innovative, modern specialist assets in the market. Given what our clients use these assets for it’s crucial that they don’t break and, if they do, there are solutions in place to minimise downtime.
New depot
“We provide the best and most environmentally friendly equipment, designed to meet the client’s needs. For example, our welfare units have a back-up generator so that in cold winter months the unit can still provide the hot water, microwave and other utilities it needs to. It’s the same approach in our Access division; we offer the most efficient modern diesel, electric and hybrid solutions. People can then have the solution that is most appropriate for their needs and the most efficient for them.”
Stephen goes on, reinforcing the importance of the quality of the fleet: “Through investment, our fleet has grown by ten per cent in the last year, and we continue to ensure that we’ve got the youngest specialist Access and Welfare fleet in the UK. This is crucial because it minimises the possibility of any problems in the first place, and then if a problem does occur makes it much easier to mitigate, minimising downtime and costs for our customers. 
“Our people are very much a central pillar contributing to the success of the business. We grow the number of our employees by between 30 and 40 every year. We are now at 270 staff which is quite exciting because that growth is across all of our locations. We are able to provide people with really good opportunities in places ranging from Scotland to Yorkshire and Bristol where we’ve just opened our new depot. Over the last 12 months we have purpose built this new 30,000 square-foot facility set in three acres of land. It represents a long-term commitment to growing the business in the UK. The facility will also include a bespoke client demo area and a training centre where we can provide consistent training for our engineers. This will help us be more efficient in serving our clients in the South of England.”
Growth opportunities
Prioritising people in a business reliant on skilled labour is a key strategy to ensuring the company’s ongoing success. Stephen highlights some of the ways in which Kelling Group stays ahead of the curve: “We achieve this is by offering apprenticeships. We’re very keen on getting young people into our business. If they have a view of how they want to move on in their career we can also help them to achieve those goals. We’re very proud that we keep and retain people. It’s also exciting when people have got a specific skill that they would like to learn in the business; we’re happy to help them learn and help them move up through the company.
“A significant number of the new people we onboard each year are young, and we try to make sure we give people opportunities to grow with us. Apart from being a very fair employer in terms of pay we also go above and beyond with benefits including enhanced pensions, medical cover, and salary sacrifice. It’s important to make sure people feel valued. It not only helps with retention, but it also helps keep a happy work environment. It’s something that’s embedded in our culture,” he concludes. “We have quarterly awards where we ask for nominations on our core values from our employees or from customers for somebody who has gone the extra mile, demonstrating that they prioritise the same values we do as a company.”