Leading hire company Laois Hire has announced that it has now secured the agency – for rentals and sales – for major portable compressor marque, CompAir. Machinery Movers Magazine speaks to the company’s branch manager, Niall Brennan, and Declan Kelly, country sales manager, Ireland for CompAir
Regular readers of this magazine will be familiar with the name Laois Hire. Established over 20 years ago, the company says it is now the leading plant and tool hire company in Ireland with a comprehensive range of hire services covering everything from plant machinery and tools to highly specialised equipment. Adding to its already impressive list of available equipment, Laois Hire recently announced that it has now secured the CompAir brand for its stable of products. “CompAir is our newest agency and we will be supplying their range of top quality portable compressors,” confirms Laois Hire branch manager, Niall Brennan.
“High-precision construction projects demand that the efficiency and reliability of compressors is of the highest calibre. CompAir stands for continuous innovation and development of compressors and compressed air equipment. Ground-breaking compressed air technologies, such as Quantima, deliver superb efficiency and performance.”
Reliable mobile compressed air solutions
CompAir is a leading global supplier of portable compressor technology providing compressed air solutions for a broad range of applications. The company says it offers global expertise with truly local service capabilities, ensuring the advanced technologies are backed up with full support.
The company is part of the Gardner Denver Group that is headquartered in Milwaukee, USA. It says technologies such as the afore-mentioned Quantima, are helping compressed air users achieve sustainability targets, with energy efficient and oil-free compressors offering lower environmental impact.
“Portable compressors from CompAir prove their reliability in the toughest site conditions and deliver significant cost savings through energy efficiency and low maintenance,” the company says. “The patented Bi-Turbo compression technology of the TurboScrew makes these compressors outstanding in efficiency. They consume up to 30% less fuel and are the smallest and lightest compressors in their class.”
Founded as Holman Bros in 1801 as a mining equipment manufacturer, the company was originally based in the UK’s centre of tin (and other minerals) mining in Camborne, Cornwall. Holman was one of the largest mining equipment manufacturers globally and included drill rigs, rock drills, air tools and compressors in its product range. As mining became less profitable through the 19th century the company shifted its focus on to compressors as key growth area into the 1900s. It merged with Broomwade in 1968 to form CompAir and since then the brand has continued to be a global market leader in portable compressors. It was acquired by the US based industrial equipment specialist Gardner Denver in 2008.
CompAir and Laois Hire
Speaking to Laois Hire’s branch manager, Niall Brennan, and country sales manager, Ireland for CompAir, Declan Kelly, Machinery Movers Magazine asked how the deal between the two organisations came about.
“We were looking for a large distributor with a network of depots in Ireland and Laois Hire fitted the bill with strategically located depots coupled with a great reputation,” says Declan
Kelly. “We approached Niall Brennan of Laois Hire and the rest is history.” Niall is quick to emphasize that there were three main reasons why Laois Hire was keen to take on the CompAir brand: “The quality of product and back up service are second to none and the competitive pricing is an additional bonus,” he says. Clearly the two organisations are a good fit.
“We both have a similar approach and drive towards business,” says Niall, “with a passion to grow and for excellent customer service and experience.” CompAir products are renowned for their reliability and efficiency and Laois hire is offering its customers the full range of portable compressors, from 35-953cfm (FAD) at pressures from 4 bar(g) to 24 bar(g). “This will be complimented by the full range of accessories and extras,” explains Niall, “including on board generators, aftercoolers and additional filtration, to hoses, jackhammers, demolition guns and scabblers. We are looking for business from all sizes and types of organisation, in hundreds of different industries. But our predominant focus industries will be in the civil engineering and groundworks sectors, along with other specialist industries including dry ice blasting, shot blasting, ground exploration, grouting, drilling, piling, cable blowing and refurbishment as well as many others.”
Declan Kelly adds that the CompAir range is ideal for the renewed large scale infrastructure investment that is planned for Ireland. “The sorts of projects we envisage the CompAir portables range being used on include the large scale investments in new building and infrastructure development across Ireland, such as motorways and road networks, and new large developments from FDI.”
Fit for the future
Looking to the future of the relationship in Ireland, both parties are optimistic that the partnership will prove to be beneficial for themselves as well as for the customer. “We want to develop the relationship to the point that anybody looking for a compressor in Ireland thinks of Laois Hire and CompAir as the most trusted and reliable source to buy from, by not only supplying an industry leading product, but by also giving second to none support and back up for complete peace of mind,’ concludes Niall. And with Laois Hire’s enviable reputation for service added to CompAir’s quality, reliability and efficiency, that shouldn’t be a problem.
