A company that sells construction equipment to contractors after acquiring it at auctions or through consignment agreements with rental providers recently opened rebuild centers in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Mechanics at the facilities check out machines before they are sold to make sure they meet operation and safety standards, and paint them if the buyer requests it.
Houston-based ADI sells aerial work platforms, cranes, forklifts and earthmoving equipment.
“Our major market services contractors who need equipment to run their businesses but who don’t have the expertise to go purchase the equipment at an auction,” says Rich Gerhart, operations manager at ADI’s repair and remanufacturing facility in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. “They don’t always know what they’re buying so we can purchase machines for them and run them through our facility to make sure they are up to the standard they want.”
The company sells the machines, which are usually 4 to 7 years old, at prices a little above wholesale, Gerhart says.
ADI’s Pennsylvania rebuild center opened in May and a facility in Paducah, Kentucky, opened in February. A third center is set to open in early fall in Phoenix.
ADI advertises the machines it has for sale in local publications and on eBay. Contractors usually come to the Pennsylvania store because they have seen an ad and want to walk through the yard, which contains between 500 and 1,200 pieces of equipment. “They know what they want,” Gerhart says of these customers. “They walk through our yard, pick out a machine, and we send it through our shop and give it back to them in five to seven working days.”
Contractors are also using the rebuild center to spruce up equipment before selling it. The machines can be painted in the facility’s state-of-the-art painting area and mechanics make sure everything on the machines is operational. If a piece of equipment is less than 8 years old, a contractor can usually double his investment in paint upon sale, Gerhart says. For example, a $1,500 paint job could bring an extra $3,000 when the machine is sold.
The repair facilities are also serving rental houses by performing maintenance and reconditioning work that can tie up rental shops.
To browse through the machines ADI has for sale, click the link to the right.
