WWW.ERARENTAL.ORG
Annual Report 2009
Save th
e date
for nex
t
ERA C
onvent
ion
Prague
26-27 M
ay 201
0
Welcome letter by
ERA PRESIDENT
Dear Member, dear colleague,
As could be predicted last year, the equipment rental industry has in the first
half of 2009 been affected by an unprecedented crisis, with an estimated aver-
age drop of activity of 10 to 15%.
This severe recession was caused both by an excessive offer of construction
equipment and by a sudden slowdown in construction, which meant that our
clients resorted less and less to rental. And the recession seems to be all the
deeper that expansion was strong in the past 4-5 years.
The results of our first Rental Confidence Tracker show that company leaders
in our industry believe that the recession in the rental industry should reach its
lowest at the beginning of 2010. The upturn should become clearly visible in
the 2011 accounts only. It stated that 81% of the 230 rental companies sur-
veyed saw business down year-on-year, and 34% forecasted a reduction in
CAPEX spending for 2010.
Of course, nobody can stand still in troubled times and all companies are re-
considering their strategies to seize the new prospects any crisis brings along.
In line with the theme of our annual convention in Manchester, “Investing in
People”, I would like to highlight once more that human resources are the most
important assets of our companies and that employees, not fleet, will be the
key to recovery.
The European Rental Association (ERA) for its part is definitely not standing
still. It is very active at its level to prompt our industry to think forward or to
resolve some of the issues our companies face on a daily basis but which can
only efficiently be dealt with at European level. The association is now in its
fourth year and has produced a set of important deliverables, which I am sure
helped most of us to have a better overview of our industry or proved useful
in different parts of our businesses. This annual report will provide you with a
detaile