Wanted: Domain Appraisal PlantHire.co.uk

[bonusmedia]

I've just bought this as an investment, wondering what others think of it?

It's a £3.5 billion market in the UK with good profit margins, but so far there are no aggregators/portals etc beyond the CPA at http://www.cpa.uk.net/

There may be a good reason for that. I'm guessing not much business is currently done online, but my reasoning is that will change in the long run.

Another downside is Google are pushing local results for the term, but I think an authority site could rise above. It would have to be much more than SEO play anyway.

I'm going to have a crack at developing a basic aggregator/portal next year, perhaps some sort of bespoke lead gen - enter your requirements and get instant quotes, that sort of thing...

Thoughts/criticism welcome!

 

[accelerator]

Quite simply this is a fabulous domain with fabulous prospects.

 

[bonusmedia]

Quite simply this is a fabulous domain with fabulous prospects.

You are now my favourite acorner

 

[accelerator]

Also, I would reg planthire.uk now, and build the site on that.

Rgds

 

[accelerator]

It's a £3.5 billion market in the UK with good profit margins, but so far there are no aggregators/portals etc beyond the CPA at http://www.cpa.uk.net/

There may be a good reason for that. I'm guessing not much business is currently done online, but my reasoning is that will change in the long run.

This is a massive disruption opportunity, and you've now got the domain for it.

The reason a website doesn't exist at the moment, is that no existing big plant hire operator needs to build one, they are happy running their big profit margin plant hire businesses. No one from the internet has taken the initiative to target this market, but once they do, I'm sure it will be pretty profitable. Uber has the internet technology to generate revenue streams from taxis, you now can do the same for plant hire.

Rgds

 

[accelerator]

Also, this domain happened to be on the spreadsheet I kept for "prospects". That's a good sign Must have been a few years ago when I first thought about it.

 

[martin-s]

Terrific domain. Look forward to seeing the website.

 

[namealot]

Very Large % of the market is dominated by 5 10 companies, They have the advantage of the market already knowing of them, brand recognition and g local, *too an extent most hire is localised, Although the names good can’t see what it offers them that they don’t already have? For the user is it only offering them a comparison site? Business would already have different rates from the existing firms so doesn’t really work for them in that guise and Joe public what does it offer them having to click on two web sites rather than one.
Yes if G local wasn’t there great but as it is and likely to get smarter being able to hire it cheaper isn’t the only consideration availability and cost of not having it when you want is more a decider. The big players might give you info on prices there not going to offer availability info * to an extent that’s branch manager decision if he want to send a van off to pick it up from another branch sometimes there’s a lot to be said for first too market and brand
You’d need to get your name first in the minds of architects, surveyors, main contractor there a pretty technophobic bunch

For its obvious market “construction It would be a struggle what about the office plant hire photo copiers, printers etc or even the flora type might be easier to get it in office bods minds Good luck with it deffo a name that if the advantage had been taken years ago would have done well now not sure still a cracker if you can break the market though.

 

[Paullas]

I own IndoorPlantHire.co.uk i think is a good domain for these companies that hire plants out to office receptions, hotels etc.

I have had a few offers for it over the years but nothing to catch my eye.

 

[Adam H]

Great name, Was just going to say what was said above (namealot). The majority of plant sold is to tradesmen or construction companies which already use companies such as Travis perkins as well as local.

I would imagine you would be limited to the general public who lets face it , their requirements for large plant is few and far between. Tradesmen in my opinion are one of the niches which are still stuck in the dark ages, they rely on word of mouth, recommendations and offline marketing to drive their business and many of them will likely never venture online for such a service because its easier and time effective to just give the local company a ring who they've used for the past 20 years.

A good example of this was a friend of mine has been using TP for skip hire for as long as he could remember, there were local companies that done it cheaper, there were other larger companies in the local area which were more reliable but to this day he remains with TP trade because he can get everything in one place, all on one invoice and any issues are dealt with by that one company.

I think there is a space for a site, but how you would go about it i think will be alot harder than expected. Might be worth contacting a large company such as Travis perkins and convincing them they need the domain for marketing purposes for a page such as this : http://www.travisperkins.co.uk/Tool-Hire

 

[accelerator]

I think there is a space for a site, but how you would go about it i think will be alot harder than expected. Might be worth contacting a large company such as Travis perkins and convincing them they need the domain for marketing purposes for a page such as this : http://www.travisperkins.co.uk/Tool-Hire

The thing is they don't need the domain at all for marketing, they are doing fine.

It's up to him to build the internet technology that will make his site a success. There's no business reason for Travis Perkins to want to do this.

Rgds

 

[Adam H]

The thing is they don't need the domain at all for marketing, they are doing fine.

It's up to him to build the internet technology that will make his site a success. There's no business reason for Travis Perkins to want to do this.

Rgds

That was an example, there are plenty of companies out there outside of the biggest 5 which their brand may not be catchy enough to be remembered with any offline marketing campaign outside of their normal catchment area, if people interested in a product see the domain name on a tv advert its unlikely they will forget it if the company who own it are not a household name like TP or indeed if a company is targeting new areas of the country.

Don't get me wrong, I like domain and i like the idea of a site that does instant quotes like a comparison site but realistically that would be much more than just building an internet technology, you would be building a business which would require significant leg work online and offline.

 

[namealot]

The thing is they don't need the domain at all for marketing, they are doing fine.

It's up to him to build the internet technology that will make his site a success. There's no business reason for Travis Perkins to want to do this.

Rgds

TP market share 3.9 % is actually piss poor when you think they are supplying a much higher % of the materials that are used with the plant ?

There might be an in if stock is old? Thing with plant hire is cost of replacing item is enormous so you may be top profit wise one year bottom next as you have had to replace your plant share holders don’t care they think f my dividend is shit this year I’m off? So the company needs something to keep them there they can use expansion plans etc and who knows maybe a new site as part of that ?

This gives some info as to who does what etc
http://www.executivehirenews.co.uk/archives/001300.html

 

[Tricky1]

Think there seems to be a bit of confusion here between tool and plant hire

Tool hire: drill, scaffold tower, hedge trimmer etc..

Plant hire: 360 excavator, dumper truck, JCB

The people who would be interested in this domain are your groundwork companies who would want it on the back of their 360 machine, or the transport that moves it, or the tippers that do the muck away etc..

Met loads of these people in 20+ years working in the landscaping industry and they would love this domain. To them its bragging rights, like a new number plate for their shiny new Range Rover

 

[Adam H]

Think there seems to be a bit of confusion here between tool and plant hire

Tool hire: drill, scaffold tower, hedge trimmer etc..

Plant hire: 360 excavator, dumper truck, JCB

No confusion, Most of the larger companies list their plant hire under the same fold as tool hire.

Was in construction myself in a previous life, Steel building and Landscaping and like i mentioned above, i agree there are plenty of plant or tool hire companies that would love the domain................whether they would be prepared to pay a good price for it though is another matter.

 

[martin-s]

I own IndoorPlantHire.co.uk i think is a good domain for these companies that hire plants out to office receptions, hotels etc.

I have had a few offers for it over the years but nothing to catch my eye.

Great idea

 

[namealot]

I’d suppose you say do firms have the maximum pins on the map approach or a more strategic approach to depot locations? TP Hire, Jewson etc have in house approach using the locations of there existing as expansion as its cost are lower than standalone attempting also penetrating into Speedy type through its customer base Is there satellite within existing stores with a catchy name opportunity ?

 

[bonusmedia]

Thanks folks, lots of good points here.

It's definitely not a simple prospect and it means building a 'real' business rather than a quick listing type site.

I reckon the fact that plant hire has big margins means there should be scope for competition. When something costs a grand a week, getting it 10% cheaper from another firm makes a big difference.

Maybe the trades can't be bothered ringing round 10 firms to see if they can save £100 - but if they can put what they need, time and place in a quick form and get quotes back quickly, I reckon it starts to make sense.

The other side of it is convincing the hire companies to quote for jobs. Hopefully there are enough smaller firms hungry for the bookings and willing to undercut the big guys.

Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[mojoco]

I like the name, it has obvious potential.

The problem I see is that majority of this type of business is done on a direct level where relationships have been established and quality of service is paramount.

A major building contractor would rather know that the equipment and manpower is onsite on the day and time specified than save 10% of the hire cost.

If a site manager knows that he can pick up the phone and say "Fred I need a JCB blah blah here on Tuesday morning at 6am" and Fred delivers on time every time, that is worth much more than a possible saving of a few percentage points in the grand scheme of things.

 

[namealot]

On a more nosey side tI believe the sellers on here won’t ask price but who approached who and if it was yourself approaching them did you know them, use contact from whois, or though landing page sedo etc just wondering if those that have domains themselves use a different approach than other business and attempting to get a better picture of marketing names to different audiences ? feel free to say none of your fffing business