AIMING HIRE

KING & STEVENS CELEBRATES 50 YEARS AS A FAMILY-RUN FIRM

King & Stevens Ltd in West Grinstead is this year celebrating its 50th anniversary as a family-run business. We meet founder Keith King and his wife Susan, who have passed on the reins to son Darren and daughter Jane Medhurst.

Quaint Village

When Keith first moved to West Grinstead in 1953, it was a very different place. The South Downs Line was still in operation, linking Horsham to the coast at Shoreham, and it would be another 13 years before the last train left the station.

West Grinstead was also known for its stables. Tony Grantham was a leading jockey, having won the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and his father was a renowned horse dealer and liveryman who conducted much of his business at the village pub, The Tabby Cat. As a lad, Keith would take horses from the station to the stables. By the time he co-founded King & Stevens Ltd in 1973, the railway line had closed, dramatically altering the local landscape.

Keith said: ‘In the early years, we ran the business from home, only moving to our current location on the A272 between Cowfold and Buck Barn in 1986. There was still a humpback bridge on the road, over the old rail line, and when they removed it, some of the brickwork was buried in our yard. As the years have passed, the road has become increasingly busy. There was a time when I could pull straight out of Park Lane on to the main road 99 times out of 100. Now, I have to wait for traffic 99 times out of a 100.’

Building A Business

After serving an apprenticeship as a mechanic in Partridge Green, Keith started King & Stevens with a friend, maintaining the name after his business partner departed. The focus of the business has evolved over the years to meet demand, although plant hire has always been central the company.

For a while, gas companies kept them busy, as they required diggers to build trenches for the laying of supply pipes. James Longley & Co was another regular customer, hiring heavy plant machinery to develop racecourses, including Cheltenham and Goodwood. When Keith noted a growing trend of construction firms investing in their own plant machinery, he decided to pursue new revenue streams.

He said: ‘We had the idea of making our machinery available for self-drive hire, for DIY builders working on small-scale or even single property developments. At the time, few businesses offered that service, and we were not aware of anyone else doing that in West Sussex. We couldn’t do that with heavy plant machinery, but it was possible to do with smaller machinery, such as mini excavators and dumpers. When another business specialising in construction tools came up for sale in Burgess Hill, we bought that too, so we could offer not only plant hire but also tools for the construction and horticultural industries.’

Do It Yourself

In recent years, Keith and Susan have stepped back from day-to-day operations, but King & Stevens remains very much a family business. Son Darren trained as a motorcycle mechanic before joining the company, while daughter Jane runs the plant hire and office, and Louisa handles accounts.

Jane said: ‘Darren has been pivotal to expanding the shop, which now stocks a huge range of tools and gardening equipment and is an authorised dealer for leading brands including Husqvarna and Stiga, as we have evolved to offer gardening equipment too. Now, our customers work not only in construction. They are tree surgeons, landscape gardeners,

Approved for: tradespeople and DIY builders, so we have different facets of the business that complement one another. Some come to us for cherry pickers or plant hire, such as diggers, rollers, dumpers and chippers. Others hire tools including carpet cleaners, generators, hedge trimmers and angle grinders. Now there’s a

Also Approved for

Monza Sport is an approved service dealer for Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Abarth and now Jeep, offering the highest levels of customer satisfaction.

We offer servicing & MOTs, parts and tuning services, aircon re-gas, tyre fitting and 4 wheel laser alignment We have special labour rates for older cars and offer courtesy cars

We have a vastly experienced Service Manager in Keith Avey and one of the country’s best technicians and diagnostic experts in Kevin Riddles On four occasions we’ve topped the JD Power customer satisfaction surveys for Alfa Romeo (*No 1 out of 165 Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Chrysler Jeep dealers for customer satisfaction in the UK, Jan - Mar 2018) wide range of tools and gardening equipment in the shop, from lithium-battery powered leaf-blowers to ride-on lawnmowers. Sometimes, people forget we’re traditionally a plant hire company, but that’s still an important part of what we do!’

Experienced Team

King & Stevens has a vastly experienced servicing team too. They look after the plant machinery and tools that are available for hire, and also repair and service equipment belonging to customers. The business has many loyal customers, as it offers flexibility as an independent, family-run company.

Keith said: ‘It’s been a hard slog to stay in business 50 years, but we’ve always found a way. It helps that we always owned the property and that helped us get through tough times and recessions. If anything, the climate today is tougher than ever, with not only more competition but more health and safety regulations.’

‘For those of us who have been around for a long time, these rules can seem over the top, but it’s something we have to abide by and we are a Safe Hire Certified Company, accredited by Hire Association Europe. Darren, Jane and Louisa and the team around them are very good at balancing all the business requirements while still looking after our customers. My wife and I are proud that it’s still a family business, although it’s very much theirs now. They’re more than capable of ensuring it keeps going for many more years to come!’

WORDS: Ben Morris

PHOTOS: Alan Wright

Further information: (01403) 864487 hire@kingandstevens.co.uk kingandstevens.co.uk