Rental success in Italy
Italian dealer SCAI explains the reasons behind its successful roll-out of the HCM Premium Rental programme
Thanks to an increased demand for rental products in Italy, the Premium Rental scheme is thriving, according to the country’s largest HCME dealer, SCAI. The company has established a huge rental fleet of 500 machines since it started providing this option to customers in 2018.
With headquarters located in Perugia, SCAI has eight branches, 45 workshops, 27 rental points and 140 employees, serving the region of Lombardy, as well as central and southern regions of Italy. Part of the reason for its progress in the rental market is its customer-focussed approach.
Reliability is a constant priority within the company and all staff ensure that customers can access much-needed rental equipment quickly and easily, reacting to all requests within a few hours.
Increased digitalisation has also proven popular with customers. Priding itself on modern solutions, SCAI has digitalised 80% of its rental process. This allows contractors to make more urgent requests, and improves the speed and accuracy of delivery, inspection, contracts and invoicing. SCAI can track its entire rental fleet remotely, including any attachments supplied with the machines.
According to SCAI, the most popular rental models for its customers are 20-tonne excavators and special application machines.
Hitachi Premium Rental brings numerous benefits to customers, not only in Italy, but across Europe. It gives them access to the latest models and added flexibility to meet the varying demands of their business. They can rely on the reliable performance of their rental equipment, as it has been serviced by their experienced local Hitachi dealer.
Renting equipment makes it easy to budget, so customers can pay as they earn. To find out more, watch this video and visit Rental - Hitachi Construction Machinery (hitachicm.com)
“We listen and understand the needs of our customers,” says Alessandro Cesaretti, Rental Division Manager for SCAI.
Delivering tailor-made solutions
The proactive dealer remains a pioneer for renting tailor-made solutions in Italy, including Hitachi special application machines. “We listen and understand the needs of our customers,” says Alessandro Cesaretti, Rental Division Manager for SCAI. “We are able to meet those needs, thanks to our engineers, support and excellent availability of machines suited to challenging applications, such as tunnelling and demolition.”
Additionally, customers appreciate SCAI’s ability to provide both sales and rental solutions, and the company believes there is a synergy between the two. “We offer a variety of contracts – from short-, mid- and long-term, to seasonal – and we work closely with key accounts located across the country and overseas.
“The HCM Premium Rental programme been a big success in Italy,” concludes Alessandro. “It didn’t take us long to realise the potential of this scheme to diversify our activities, find new opportunities and grow along with our rental solutions.”
As a reflection of its success in the rental market, SCAI earned the HCME Rent2Rent Award in 2022. Around 80% of its rental fleet is made up of Hitachi equipment.
SCAI ensured that it remained close to its customers throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Their rental contracts provided a cushion for customers, so that as soon as the lockdown was over, they could quickly get back to work and make up for lost time. The company continued to service rental equipment throughout the pandemic, ensuring it was ready to work reliably and perform optimally. It also received special permission to assist contractors still working on job sites.
During the lockdown in Italy, SCAI succeeded in delivering a huge tender of crawler excavators for a key account customer, which was working on a strategic gas pipeline crossing Eastern Europe. Due to political reasons and energy demands, the project was allowed to continue despite the pandemic. SCAI was asked by its customer if they could still support them with the delivery of more than 40 machines. Working from home, the SCAI team cooperated with colleagues at HCME to ensure the delivery was completed. The machines were delivered to the main Italian port to be shipped to Eastern Europe.
