Ashtead Group Public Limited Company is a British industrial

equipment rental Equipment rental, or plant hire, is a service industry providing machinery, equipment and tools for a limited period of time to final users, mainly to general contractors but also to industry and Consumer, individual consumers. Renting can be ...

company based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. It is listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

as a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...

, but, as of December 2024, it is contemplating a US stock market listing.

History

Ashtead was founded in 1947, in the village of

Ashtead Ashtead is a village in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, approximately south of central London. Ashtead is on the single-carriageway A24 road (Great Britain), A24 between Epsom and Leatherhead. The village is on the northern sl ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, as Ashtead Plant and Tool Hire. In 1986, it was first listed on the

. In September 2018, Ashtead appointed Paul Walker as non-executive chairman of its board. In November 2018, it was announced that Geoff Drabble would retire as CEO after twelve years on 1 May 2019, and would be succeeded by Brendan Horgan, the Group Chief Operations Officer and chief executive of Sunbelt Rentals, Ashtead's North American business. In June 2022, Sunbelt Rentals, Ashtead's main operating subsidiary, was announced as an investor in

lithium-ion A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery that uses the reversible Intercalation (chemistry), intercalation of Li+ ions into electronically Electrical conductor, conducting solids to store energy. Li-ion batteries are c ...

battery developer

Britishvolt Britishvolt was a UK Startup company, startup manufacturer of lithium-ion battery, lithium-ion batteries. The company initially planned production of batteries for the automotive industry. It began construction of a gigafactory at Blyth, Northum ...

. After Britishvolt went into administration in January 2023, Ashtead later revealed it took a £35m hit from its collapse. In December 2024, Ashtead announced plans (to be discussed with shareholders) to move its primary stock market listing from London to the US. It said the US was a "natural long term listing venue" because most of the group's profit came from North America, and its leadership, most of its 25,000 employees and its operational headquarters were all in the US.

Operations

The company operates internationally, servicing customers in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Approximately 85% of its revenue is generated in the United States through the subsidiary Sunbelt Rentals, currently present in over 1,000 locations across the United States and Canada. The company's non-executive directors are Paul Walker, Angus Cockburn, Jill Easterbrook, Tanya Fratto, Reneta Ribeiro, Lucinda Riches and Lindsley Ruth.

British operations

Sunbelt Rentals, formerly known as A-Plant, is present in over 185 locations throughout the United Kingdom, and has the following divisions: *''A-Plant, Plant'' *''A-Plant, Accommodation'' *''Astra Site Services, Excavator Attachments'' *''Brightlights'' *''FLG Services, Lifting and Handling Specialists'' *''Hoist-It LTD'' *''GB Access'' *''Hewden Industrial, equipment hire to the petrochemical industry'' *''Leada Acrow'' *''Live Trakway'' *''Mather+Stuart Power Solutions'' *''PSS Hire'' *''Rapid Climate Control'' *''Tool Hire Express'' *''A-Plant, Powered Access'' *''A-Plant Customer Training Solutions'' *''A-Plant, Rail'' *''A-Plant, Lux Traffic Systems'' *''Opti-cal Survey Equipment (Survey Hire Express)''

References

External links

Ashtead Group Official site
{{Authority control Business services companies of the United Kingdom Business services companies established in 1947 Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Construction equipment rental companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in the City of London 1947 establishments in England Companies based in London 1947 establishments in the United Kingdom Companies established in 1947 Construction and civil engineering companies based in London Companies in the FTSE 100 Index Companies in the S&P Europe 350 Dividend Aristocrats