As Coates Hire celebrates its 120th anniversary we can also celebrate the achievement of record turnover, profits, earnings and dividends.

Anniversaries are often used as an opportunity to focus on past glories. If Coates were to do so, we would see a company whose strength and reputation has come about through the visionary leadership of former Chief Executives, through careful execution of our Strategic Plan and through 120 years of commitment and dedication by the best workforce in the business.

Coates has certainly come a long way. From our origins as a small engineering company based in Melbourne, we have grown into an international hire specialist, with 2,000 employees managing over 800,000 pieces of equipment at over 180 locations in Australia, Indonesia and the UK. Turnover has risen to $527.6 million in 04/05, with profit of $63.5 million.

Recent years have seen us reduce our dependence on construction by moving into new market sectors. We have grown rapidly, both organically and by making prudent acquisitions. We have reduced costs by introducing market-leading asset management infrastructure and processes. And we have improved our customer commitment by implementing The Coates Way across the Company and continuously developing our employees.

We are proud of our 120 years of excellent service and proud of the way that Coates is developing. Rather than focus on our past, however, we prefer to take a different view, because we know that there is a long way to go.