Investment in the powered access hire fleet of Nationwide, and the other Lavendon Group operations in Europe that trade under the Zooom name, continued in 2002 to the tune of £21.1 million. This expanded the overall hire fleet by well over 700 machines to bring the Group's total fleet of scissor lifts, boom lifts and truck mounts to over 12,000 units.

265 machines were added to Nationwide's UK fleet to take it past the 6,000 unit mark - more than twice the number of its nearest competitor - with the remainder going to Lavendon's Zooom operations in France and Spain. Additions included new units from Upright, Genie, JLG and Grove that are available from any of Nationwide's 50 depots.

This latest investment takes the total sum invested in the Lavendon fleets to just short of £190 million in the past two and a half years. It follows a £168 million accelerated two-year investment programme, which helped to establish the business as the clear European market leader for powered access rental. A recently published global league table confirmed that Lavendon is now the sixth largest powered access company in the world, with its Zooom operations in Germany, France, Spain and Austria.

Nationwide has its headquarters in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, and all of its depots comply with the company's ISO 9002 accreditation. Details on Nationwide and its current fleet of powered access units can be found at www.nationwideaccess.com, while the Lavendon Group's website can be found at www.lavdongroup.com

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January 2003 Nat3.078a