Needham Plant Hire was registered in January 1968 as a Construction Plant Hire company. The company was founded by Robert Patrick John Moore (Current Owner), George Oliver Rutter (retired) and Harold Needham (retired).

The company was based in Henred Road New Germany, and enjoyed substantial growth throughout the 1970’s and early 1980’s predominantly in the compressor and pneumatic fields of construction. By 1973 Harold Needham was bought out by the two remaining partners. Through its growth the company expanded and opened branches in Pietermaritzburg, Richards Bay, Wadeville (Johannesburg) and Silverton (Pretoria).

In 1986 Rand Air approached the partners with an offer to purchase the entire operation. After three months of negotiation the owners decided to sell the operation but retain the name of Needham Plant Hire. On conclusion of the sale George Rutter retired. After lying dormant for a year the sole remaining owner, Bob Moore decided to move into another field of construction hire and a close corporation was registered using the name Needham Plant Hire CC trading as Need-A-Tool.

With 18 years of compressor hire experience, Bob Moore recognized the demand for an efficient general plant hire company. The company resumed its operations starting at Sandy’s Centre in Old Main Road, Pinetown. The company expanded rapidly and within a year Bob brought in the first of his son’s Sean to assist him. The expansion continued and within another year a second son, Rory joined the company. With continued growth we realized the company needed bigger premises and entered into a five year contract with the option to purchase a much larger property at 112 Old Main Road Pinetown. During that year the third son, Kieron had joined the company, with the intention of expanding the sales division. Need-A-Tool’s sales division began to gain momentum and we were soon being offered agencies for famous brand names such as Bosch, Metabo, Hitachi and Ingersoll-Rand Type 30 Compressors.

With continued expansion in the following years, we soon realized that at the rate the company was growing the current premises would not be big enough. In 1994 we decided the time had come for us to acquire a premises that would be suitably positioned and designed to suit our type of business and for future development. Fortunately for us, Falcon Park had come on the market and we purchased a prominent site on Otto Volek road linking Pinetown to New Germany and the M19 freeway to Durban. An architect was engaged; premises were designed and built to suit our needs. Construction was completed and in August 1994 we took up residence in our new premises - 32 Nipper Road, Falcon Park, and New Germany.

Being members of the Contractors Plant Hire Association (CPHA) of which Bob Moore is a founder member, we are often exposed to new innovations in the plant hire industry. Our Kieron Moore ran as president of the CPHA for KZN during 1996 and was fortunate enough to partake in a trip to Australia and meet with a number of Plant Hire companies in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane. He noticed that Access Platforms formed a large part of the available plant for hire. Further investigation on his return showed the obvious benefits of these machines. Their obvious access abilities, ease of use, safety, cost-saving, productivity potential and versatility, showed us that it was a category of machines that South Africa could definitely benefit from.

During this time JLG Industries, the leading manufacturer of Access Platforms in the world, opened an office in Johannesburg and selected Need-A-Tool as their Rental partner for KwazuluNatal in 1998. Since that time we have been servicing KZN for its access needs and have had the privilege of dealing with customers such as Mondi Paper, Toyota SA, Engen Refinery and Gateway Construction. We obviously still provide construction, engineering and DIY equipment to KZN companies and the public for hire, sales and service and proud to be associated with products that we are agents for such as HILTI, STIHL, BOSCH, KRANZLE High Pressure Washers, HONDA Power Products, MAKITA, METABO and HITACHI. However, we have invested largely in Access Equipment believing firmly that in a rapidly changing world with increased demand on productivity and safety, this product will become as popular in S.A. as it has become throughout the rest of the world. We are confident in the direction that Need-a-Tool is taking with equipment like Access Platforms and we are committed to being the supplier of choice to all industries that require our service.