Stéphane Hénon, ERA’s new president-elect and Managing Director of LOXAM: “We need to support the rental industry to manage every new challenge’’

This year’s edition of the European Rental Association Convention in Riga has brought to all of its 300 attendees not only a lot of interesting insights from the rental industry reality, but also a new president-elect that will - for 3 years from now – make sure that all 5,000 companies and 15 associations will be able to stay competitive on a very challenging market during his presidency.

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LECTURA’s editor Florentina Chiriță attended the event and spoke to Stéphane Hénon about his new role and plans. Read the exclusive interview that ERA’s new president-elect has given to LECTURA right after the election and expressed his initial feelings and emotions. At the end of the interview, Jörg Bachmann, Sales Director LECTURA, handed over a premium version of the BrandSurvey - the company's most complex survey so far - to Mr. Hénon as a little gift for his appointment.

FC: Congratulations on your appointment as the new president-elect of ERA! What were your thoughts when you received the great news about your appointment?

SH: I was delighted, it is a big honor. We have been involved in ERA’s activity since the very beginning - the day of its formation - so for me it is very motivating to become the president of the association. I look at it as a continuity as I was already a board member of ERA, involved with the rest of the board members in all its activities.

FC: What will your main responsibilities be as the president of ERA?

SH: To coordinate and motivate the team and to propose directions on some important topics that the board had been working on. It is a teamwork. There are many committees working on different topics, we are doing some lobbying for the industry, so it will not be a major change.

FC: ERA’s mission is to facilitate a sustainable and professional growth for the rental industry in Europe. How are you planning to continue this ambitious mission - despite the present economical and political challenges?

SH: Right now, the rental industry is dealing with two different issues: the short-term situation where our members have to address certain problems like the supply chain shortage – which means that it is difficult for them to get machines, so they are struggling short-term to get them and it might continue for another year or two – and inflation.

Inflation is a new concept in this industry. Most of the rental teams’ members are 25-40 years old and have not experienced so far what inflation is and they do not know how to react to it, they do not have the reflex to do so, so we must train them in order to help them deal with high inflation, we need to work differently. Some countries have experienced high inflation for the past 10-20 years, know perfectly how to react to a regular price review, for example, and are quite strong on that – but most of the European countries have not, so the staff of the rental companies are quite weak in front of the inflation and that is something that we will have to work on, short-term.

European rental companies also deal with long-term challenges. One of them is the continuity of the digitalization, which is not a new one, but one that goes a long way, so it will never be finished. We have seen that a lot of ERA members have done a great job already but there are more and more initiatives with more and more data that will impact their activity, (IoT becomes something major) so that is a journey that we have to continue. We have to promote the digitalization in the industry.

The other one is the green transition – discussed at this year’s edition of the ERA Convention – that will bring some constraints for our members because now they must implement the transition in their own field, which means that they will have to spend some money. I actually see this more as an opportunity as our customers will not buy the new updated-to-green machines – they will prefer to rent them - so I think that this a great chance for us, and I am quite convinced that it will increase the rental penetration rate in the industry.

FC: What are your thoughts on ERA’s recent initiative of requesting the European Commission to fully take into account the rental in the EU Taxonomy list of sustainable activities and how will it help rental companies when approved and implemented?

SH: For me, personally, this initiative of doing lobbying on such topics is one important part of the duty that we have at ERA: if we are not active and we are just waiting to see what will be the outcome of the European Commission, then we will be classified in some random categories. I think that we are really at the heart of the circular economy, we are good for the green transition, and for the time being I do not think that the rental industry is really recognized and classified in the right category, so we must put our voice out there and tell that our industry is a specific one with all the possible benefits for the climate.

This is the lobbying action that ERA must do: to go to Brussels and tell the European Commission members: “Listen to our voice - we represent a strong industry, and we need to be considered in the right league’’.

FC: What are the main issues that ERA’s members (5,000 companies and 15 associations) are facing right now and what solutions do you have in mind in order to help overcome them?

SH: Short term, ERA’s members have to face the high levels of inflation. We will need to find some ways to compensate that and to transfer this inflation to our customers because we are in a business where we deal mostly with fixed costs which are massively increasing (utilities, salaries, etc.), so we have to keep the right balance in our business. The manufacturers are dealing with a lot of problems related to the supply chain, and I am afraid that this will continue until the end of 2023.

How can we help them? We are really not running the business for them, of course, but through the ERA committee we can come up with the best practices, and they can rely on the discussions that we have together, and also on the materials that the committee is creating for them.

FC: What is the message that you want to send to all ERA members?

SH: I would like to tell them that we are on the right path, even if now there are more uncertainties than ever. The global environment and the construction sectors for 2023 look promising, we have some good years ahead of us and we should take advantage of this good visibility to accelerate both the green and the digital transition.