b'CHAPTER 06GOING THEIR OWN WAYBY THE TIME THE 1990S ROLLED AROUND,succeeded in creating two separate and successful KENNARDS HIRE HAD GROWN TO FOURTEENAustralian family businesses.BRANCHES THROUGHOUT SYDNEY, NEWCASTLE AND BRISBANE. But Andy and Nev had to admit toNeville walked away with the storage business, Easi themselves that their professional interests had beenStor, while Andy retained Kennards Hire. Neville took growing apart over that time. I was putting all my effortsAndys shares in Prestige Portables and Conveyor & into the hire business, Andy says. Nev still had anHoist Rentals. Andy took Nevilles shares in Australian emotional attachment to hire, but he was really Hi-Reach Rentals.concentrating on the storage business. And with that, Andy and Nev were no longer1990sTheir kids were also getting to an age when they might wantbusiness partners.to take part in the family business. By this time, Kennards Hire was the largest family-owned hire business in theKENNARDS HIRE WITH ANDY AT THE HELMcountry. Andy and Nevs history of handshake deals andIn 1992, Kennards Hire made one of the most significant making major decisions after a brief chat would no longerbusiness decisions in its history when it acquired eight work now if the business was growing to encompass thebranches from one of its strongest competitors, GKN third generation of Kennards. And one thing Andy and NevRentals, in a deal dubbed GKN1. This increase of nearly agreed on was that they definitely wanted to keep Kennards60 per cent in the number of branches took them into Hire a family business. Burleigh West, in the heart of Queenslands Gold Coast, as well as expanding the business in Sydney.So in 1991, they made the monumental decision to Opposite Changingpart ways. They both had their own paths to go on,Along with the new locations, Kennards Hire gained signage from BJ Hire,says Andys daughter, Kirsty Kovacs, who is the CEO of5200 pieces of equipment and thirty new employees, which was acquiredthe Kennards Hire Foundation and has been a boardwho would also be retrained in the Kennards Way. in Goulburn, 1996. member of Kennards Hire for ten years. I think that wasThey were stunned to arrive at work to discover a new totally the right thing to do at the time. paint job in Kennards Hires distinctive red.They dealt with the breakup of the business in muchA stocktake revealed an excess of equipment from the same way they had made all major decisions inthe GKN buyout, so the business staged an auction the pastthey sat down and split the assets betweenof ex-rental goods valued at $2 million. Thousands of them. No money changed hands, no agreements wereitems, ranging from hand tools and ladders to tip trucks signed. Nowadays, it is simply referred to as an amicableand trailer lifts were sold to the over three hundred split, but Andy and Nev had a few arduous monthsattendees, manyof whom were from other hire of sometimes frustrating negotiations. Emotions rancompanies.high, particularly when it came to the property at the Artarmon branch. However, they were determined toIn 1994, Kennards Hire finished the job, buying up all make it work without any cash equalisations. After a lotthe shares in GKN Rentals (GKN2), adding a further of late nights, and possibly some tears, they eventuallyten outlets in Sydney and the ACT, bringing the total'