Content area
Full text
With the acquisition of Lex Transfleet in 2007, Fraikin made a major leap forward in the UK. To find out what else is in store, CM spoke to the company's executive vice-president for international, Laurent Bonnaure.
ALTHOUGH THE market might have you looking out of Laurent Bonnaure's 17th-floor office window and considering your future, nobody at Fraikin is panicking - not just yet, anyway.
Bonnaure is Fraikin's executive vicepresident for international - he joined the company last September - and he came across as far from despondent when CM caught up with him to discuss the current economic recession and the challenges - and opportunities - it has presented the contract hire and rental giant.
Indeed, as we reported last month, Bonnaure reckons the UK market is in a healthier position than the rest of Europe.
"Our clients are focusing on their core activity and concentrating their capital expenditure into these areas," he says. "The result of this is a further shift to outsourcing of services, and fleet management is, of course, an area of interest for many customers. We had thought this might result in a lift for the short-term rental business, but we are actually seeing a lift in long-term contract hire activity, which is a positive signal for business confidence."
Bonnaure said these first signs of revival had come in the UK at the start of January, and there were now signs other European markets - France and Spain - were beginning to follow suit, although he was a long way from predicting an upturn in the market
If anything, the Fraikin case is more a result of the company's actions to get closer to its customers and generate more business, than a sign the economy is on the up.
A French concern
Bonnaure occupies a small office on the 17th floor of a...