STAYING true to its family and community roots has been key to the rapid expansion of YES Hire, the MD of the Falkirk-headquartered firm told Project Plant just weeks after the company came to the rescue of a local care home left without power during Storm Éowyn.
The business, which employs 40 people, was founded as a tool hire firm in 2012 by David Johnstone and initially comprised a small team of just himself and fitter, Eddie Nicholson, as well as his wife and father who both worked part-time before they were joined by his brother Alex, with all later becoming directors of the company.
Later expanding into plant hire, the firm now boasts a fleet of more than 90 excavators, dumpers, and other machinery – mainly Kubota, SANY, and JCB models of plant – with Hilti, Wacker Neuson, and Belle being key suppliers in the tool hire range.
David explained that the brands have proven to allow for the best value, performance, and robustness for customers. Sensing demand for enhanced welfare units in the post-Covid world, YES also moved into the welfare market as it looks to offer a one-stop-shop for all equipment needs.
Key to its offering is a personal and reactive service, which David explained means the business can be run to the benefit of customers – particularly in the event of emergencies, where processes and authorisation limits can often slow down transactions in national competitors.
This way of operating gave YES its first big break. By chance, the company’s first depot sat beside the site which would later become The Kelpies. During the attraction’s construction in 2013, the project’s main contractor urgently needed a cut-off saw – which YES was able to provide immediately. The firm has since worked with the contractor all across Scotland.
More recently, during Storm Éowyn in late January, a Falkirk care home which lost power during the night reached out in desperate need of a back-up generator. Within an hour-and-a-half, the YES team had the generator delivered and set up ready for power.
Similar scenes were recorded in 2019 during a gas outage in Falkirk, which saw YES prioritise the community over profit, with generators given to vulnerable residents with health problems before anyone else.
“We gave out heaters for free to the local community because there were vulnerable people who couldn’t have their house below a certain temperature or they would have serious health complications,” Gregor Mabbott, branch director at YES Hire, explained. “We could’ve capitalised on it and made a lot of money by hiring out heaters, but we gave them out because there were people in precarious situations that needed heat – so we did what was right.”
Supporting the local community has been ‘very important’ to David since the company’s founding, with it having backed a number of local charities over the years and for the past five years has been heavily involved in supporting both Falkirk and Stenhousemuir Football Clubs’ foundations.
Another recent example of the firm’s reactiveness was a long-time client who was at risk of losing £250,000 in concrete, after a sub-contractor had used faulty machinery on a pour. Turning to YES at 3pm, the business rallied its resources and had a new piece of kit with the firm by 10am the next morning – saving it from the quarter-of-a-million-pound bill!
“The best way of growing our business is through word of mouth – but you’re only as good as your last transaction, and what we’re very focused on is consistency,” David added. “We’ve done great and I’m immensely proud of where we’ve come from – it was a small family business at the start, but we’ve grown it into a bigger family business; it’s trickier when you’ve got 40 employees, compared to when we had smaller numbers, but we still stick to the core values we had at the start.”
YES has made the transition to the employee ownership model (EOT), in a move which has seen its employees own 60% of the business. David kicked the process off in 2022 after an offer was made from a national company to buy the firm.
Explaining that the deal could have potentially seen the staff who helped him build the business lose their jobs further down the line, he rejected the bid and instead viewed the interest as a prompt to reward his team.
“It’s not a fit for every business, but it ticked a lot of boxes for me in terms of keeping the brand and business going,” David said. “But also, the fact that the people you’ve worked with and who have helped deliver the success will in time benefit significantly. We’ve always said from the start that if the company does well, then everyone will do well.”
One of the first results of employee ownership was a move to a five-day working week, with the business closing on Saturdays. Despite the inevitable loss in revenue, David revealed he takes great comfort in knowing his team members won’t miss a child’s sports match, spending time with friends, or any of the other benefits a free weekend offers.
With the family ethos key to the firm’s success, an expansion further afield was viewed as a risky one. However, YES took the decision to open a new base in Dundee in 2022 on account of having a number of customers in the area, as well as further north.
The commitment to apply the same community principles that grew the Falkirk base has paid off in Dundee, with the firm relocating to a larger premises in a prime location six months ago.
“We have grown our reputation quite quickly in Dundee and again it is on the back of our values,” David added. “We’re not doing anything significantly different in Dundee to what we’re doing in Falkirk; we’re close to our customer base and meeting our customers’ expectations and supplying customers with what they want, when they want, at a reasonable price.”
Working closely with the Dundee United Community Trust allowed YES to get involved in community projects a few weeks after opening the new branch. The trust had identified a youngster as being a bit disillusioned with school and unsure of his future, despite it being evident that he had something about him.
David decided to interview him for a six-week trial – and he now holds a valued and respected role in YES’ Dundee operations.
“I think when you’re growing up in your late teens you don’t really know what you want – your body is evolving, and most likely you’re not the person you may want to be or end up being. Too many young people get cast aside without being given a chance,” David continued. “It’s worked out great for both of us – he has a really good job with security, a training and development plan, and we’ve got a great employee.”
Plans are in place for YES to support a number of major developments in Dundee over the next 5-10 years, with organic growth also planned over the short-term in 2025 and beyond.
“We’ve got a growth target,” David said. “The key thing for us as a successful business is to focus on building a positive pathway for our young people to benefit from a supportive training/work environment. We have been involved locally for a number of years with local football foundations initiatives in Dundee, Falkirk, and Stenhousemuir.”
Plans are also in place to continue developing Scotland’s young workforce, with the backing of Powering Futures. The initiative allows businesses to partner with Scottish schools to provide a pathway for youngsters into careers, with YES offering opportunties to schools in both the Dundee and Falkirk areas.
“Sustainability strategy is also very prominent in the company’s growth pans,” David continued. “We are registered with Net Zero Scotland and committed to reducing the carbon footprint, developing equipment purchase choices, and evolving the supply chain to ensure the products we have for hire echo and support our sustainability drive for 2025.”
