Interview: Boom & Platform Hire - building a sustainable fleet in Ireland

Donoghue co-founded the Irish powered access rental company along with the late Ciaran Gillespie back in 2003, both having already spent years working in the sector.

More than two decades later, and now wholly owned by Donoghue, Boom & Platform Hire has developed into one of the largest rental companies in the island of Ireland, with around 1,000 machines, two depots, in Blessington Co-Wicklow and Midleton Co-Cork, and approximately 25 full-time employees.

Feargal Donoghue, co-founder of Boom & Platform Hire. (Image: KHL).

The company is also IPAF Rental Plus accredited and prides itself on a top class back up service for its loyal and growing customer base.

The fleet is deliberately multi-brand. While JLG and Genie have traditionally represented a large proportion of the company’s equipment, Donoghue says that it has increasingly looked across the market as the economics of fleet investment have changed.

Significant recent investments have been in Sinoboom MEWPs, amounting to around 200 machines. As far as other Chinese brands are concerned, the company also runs some LGMG, Dingli, and Zoomlion machines in its fleet. Alongside the previously mentioned JLG and Genie units, there are also some Niftylifts, some Snorkel machines, and a large number of Haulotte’s following another recent investment.

“The way the market has gone means you need to be fishing around for better prices. “There’s not that much between all the brands now,” he says. “Some of them had a bit of an edge, but I think the day when one or two of them were way ahead of the others has changed. That gap is closing.”

The choice of equipment has become increasingly important as the cost of putting machines into a rental fleet has risen. At the same time, rental rates have not kept pace.

“Costs have gone up — the cost of equipment, the cost of labour, the cost of parts, the cost of finance,” says Donoghue. “And the rates are a big problem, and they seem to be a problem across Europe at the moment.”

Tariffs add another complication

Brexit and tariffs have also changed the way Donoghue approaches equipment purchasing. Referring to the duties on MEWPs entering the EU, which were introduced last year, followed by UK’s own provisional tariffs this summer, Donoghue adds, “The tariffs are crazy. Between them and Brexit, does anyone really understand what a tariff is on anything now.

“I would say it has done a lot of damage to the UK market,” which has led him to stop buying used equipment in the country.

(Image: Boom & Platform Hire).

“We would have traditionally worked with young used equipment, but now because the price of used equipment is nearly as expensive as new, we have changed our direction.”

He adds, “It is a buyers’ market at the moment. I think if you have some funding behind you, you can do a good deal – and in these conditions, you need to do a good deal.”

For a rental company trying to work out the real cost of putting a machine into its fleet, that uncertainty matters. Donoghue says it has become necessary to look carefully at where equipment is sourced and what the eventual cost will be.

He also believes the tariff situation is having an effect on the choice between Chinese and established manufacturers. Asked whether tariffs were pushing buyers back towards the traditional manufacturers, he agreed that they were having an impact. At the same time, he says some manufacturers are prepared to subsidise the tariff.

That is part of the calculation behind the company’s approach as it looks beyond the traditional leading brands, while ensuring the quality of the product and support is in place alongside the overall cost.

Investment brings demand

As Donoghue points out there is plenty of work for a shrewd investor and one that has built up a loyal customer base.

Inward investment has brought major construction and industrial projects to Ireland, with data centres, advanced manufacturing, logistics and warehousing all generating demand for access equipment. Some projects can require 50 or 60 machines, sometimes at relatively short notice.

(Image: Boom & Platform Hire).

But the strength of demand has not translated into those higher rental rates. “There’s plenty of work in the country,” says Donoghue. “But there’s too much supply, so you can’t get your prices up.”

He estimates that rental rates are around 25 to 30% below the levels being achieved five years ago. That presents a difficult equation when equipment and operating costs are moving in the opposite direction.

One response has been to keep machines in the fleet for longer. “We have a fantastic team of very experienced service engineers and we carry out significant refurbishment work where and when it makes economic sense.

“A refurb can cost you maybe €10,000 or €15,000 on a boom, but you’re probably getting another 10 years out of it.”

Although the company’s fleet is now relatively young, it still has machines over 15 years old working alongside newer equipment.

The used equipment market, however, has become another headache. Donoghue says there is less appetite among dealers and manufacturers for taking used machines in part exchange, leaving rental companies with greater responsibility for disposing of older equipment themselves.

“There seems to be just too much used stock lying around,” he says. “I think what happened after Covid was that due to supply chain issues people hadn’t bought for 18 months, then we bought three years’ worth of equipment in one year.”

That makes residual values increasingly difficult to predict. Donoghue says a machine might go to auction and make €5,000, only for a similar machine to sell for €8,000 or €9,000 a short time later. For him, this reinforces the need to buy carefully in the first place.

“We never buy machines just to get them into the market to get business. We buy them for our customers.”

Buying in bulk

That philosophy has shaped the company’s investment strategy. Rather than simply adding equipment to chase market share, Boom & Platform Hire has generally invested when it has identified genuine demand from its customer base.

(Image: Boom & Platform Hire).

The company spent around €5 million on equipment in 2025 and is expecting to reach the same figure this year, bringing the total investment to £25 million over the last seven years. “We have been picking up a lot of good work, and our customers grew as the market grew – then we grew with our customers.”

Buying in larger batches has also enabled the company to negotiate better prices. “I bought hard and I paid back over short terms. I wanted to get my fleet up, but I wanted to keep the debt as low as I could by getting it paid off as quickly as I could.”

Instead of buying three or four booms, the strategy saw him investing in 10 or even 20 units. “The idea was to build the fleet while the company could see several years of strong work ahead, but to pay down the associated debt relatively quickly.”

That has left the business in what he considers a relatively strong position and means the company can now reduce its capital expenditure after several years of heavy investment. Next year’s capex could be closer to €1 million to €2 million.

Donoghue says the company has built a fleet it is happy with and does not need to keep buying at the same rate. He adds, “Because we had such a sustained period of buying, we have a fantastic fleet now. We don’t need much else.”

And, with a substantial proportion of the fleet now owned, it gives the company some protection against lower rental rates and the increasingly high financing costs.

Donoghue says utilisation was above 80% last year, although it has eased more recently. The company’s approach, however, is not to fill the yard with machines simply in the hope that somebody will hire them. “We’re buying machines to keep our own customer base going,” he says. “To keep them happy and satisfied.”

Consolidation continues 

That customer-led approach has become particularly important as competition between rental companies has intensified.

(Image: Boom & Platform Hire).

Donoghue expects further consolidation in the Irish rental market, arguing that the scale of investment now required makes life increasingly difficult for smaller independent companies.

He points to the growing presence of large groups and private-equity-backed businesses, with their greater purchasing power, as another source of pressure on independent rental companies. “I think there’ll be more acquisitions in Ireland,” he says. “It’s more and more difficult for smaller companies to be very competitive.”

Despite the pressures, Donoghue remains positive about the underlying Irish economy and the amount of work available. “We’ve built up a great brand from zero, and with that comes a great sense of pride. The management team and staff are very important to me.”

He expects the market to cool and level out rather than crash, arguing that the current situation is more controlled than the last major downturn. For Boom & Platform Hire, that means resisting the temptation to chase growth for its own sake.

After several years of substantial capital investment, the company can concentrate on making the most of the fleet it has built and responding to the requirements of its established customer base. “There’s plenty of work,” he says. “It’s a very competitive market — but the outlook is pretty good.”

(Image: Boom & Platform Hire).