b'KENNARDS HIRE Since 1948TAKING HIRE HIGHER | 54number of branches to thirty-two. This time, the company not onlythe refined sort of machine that it is today. But thats where the gained new ground, it gained new blood in former GKN managingopportunity really lay to put some scale into the business. director, Peter Lancken.Pete told Andy his ambition to take the predominantly New South Peter had started with GKN fresh out of UNSW with an engineeringWales business and turn it into a national footprint of branches, and degree. He spent the next eighteen years working his way up theAndy was on board. Peter was appointed CEO and executive director ranks, picking up his family and moving them to live whereverof Kennards Hire in 1995. He was the first person from outside the the work wasSingapore, the US, and every state and capital inKennard family to take on the top job. Australia. His business smarts and willingness to tackle big projects eventually saw him running the show for GKN in Australia. The task ahead was big, but Andy and Pete were up for it. We had a half-baked business model. We had people who werent Kennards Hire had always preferred workers who rose through theproperly trained, we had equipment that needed service work and ranks, and Andy admired Petes career trajectory. So when Peteinvestment, Pete says. We had to learn to walk and chew gum at approached him about working with Kennards Hire after thethe same time.buyout, Andy was cautiously keen. He had tried hiring a general manager a few years earlier and that had not gone well for theAndy and Neville had built the business up without any university company, despite the candidate being a bright bloke. He simplydegrees, just hard work and a lot of Aussie ingenuity. But for the hadnt had the specialised hire industry knowledge required, andbusiness to go to the next level, bringing in modern, professional Andy had stepped back from his own responsibilities too quickly.management along with modern technology was a must. They also Sales declined while costs rose, and Andy had to re-enter the business. acknowledged that the business had been the Andy and Nev show for a couple of decades, but that the family would need to relinquish Peter Lancken, however, had the requisite industry background andsome control to keep the momentum going and stop the business experience running a company the size Kennards Hire aspired to be.from going stale. Peter was confident that Andy had already begun The two struck a deal for Pete to come on board as general manager.to assemble the right people to transition to the next level. For Pete, it was quite the transition coming from a large BritishI am probably the outsider in that I started off with a university multinational to a family-owned business. It was chalk and cheesedegree, Peter says. But I really surrounded myself with people who I [moving] to Kennards Hire in terms of the scale and the type ofknew would be important for the journey and who I trusted greatly; business, he admits. When I started, wed just come through apeople who had all that rich operational experience, that equipment significant recession. Kennards was very agricultural, nothing likeexperience, and the knowledge of how it works.We had a half-baked business model. We had people whowerent properly trained, we had equipment that needed service work and investment, Peter says. We had to learn to walk and chew gum at the same time.'