The new ambitions of the Kiloutou Group

GroupStrategy and Finance Olivier Colleau

With sales up 14%, the KILOUTOU Group recorded a new year of strong growth in 2017. Backed by its new majority shareholders, HLDI and HLD Europe, and led by its new Managing Director, Olivier Colleau, the specialist in equipment rental for professionals, is entering a new phase of its expansion and innovating to improve the customer experience.

2017: Growth sustained once again

In line with the announced forecasts, the year 2017 enabled the KILOUTOU Group to achieve its growth objectives with a turnover of 606 million euros, an increase of 14%. The group has 502 branches in 5 countries (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain).

The equipment rental specialist has thus consolidated its positions as France’s No. 2 and No. 4 in Europe, driven by a dynamic of internal and external growth, both in France and abroad. Outside France, KILOUTOU has settled in Italy and strengthened its network in Poland and Spain. The Kiloutou Group now generates 10% of its turnover outside its borders with 62 branches in total.

At the same time, KILOUTOU pursued its action program to better serve its professional clients with investments of 2,500 equipment aimed at rejuvenating the park as well as expanding its offer and developing the energy, module and reception specialist agencies. These specialties now bring together 14 agencies in France.

Beyond value creation, this strategy enables the KILOUTOU Group to display a growing customer portfolio in each of the major families of construction professionals and the Green Spaces, Industry and Events sectors.

2018: A new expansion phase

In 2018, the KILOUTOU Group begins a new phase of its expansion with the support of its new shareholders HLDI and HLD Europe, with whom the management team, now chaired by Olivier Colleau, shares the same values ​​based on a passion for the client, the taste for performance and confidence in man.

“Together, we will continue building a large European equipment rental platform, focused on our mission: to simplify the lives of all our customers, wherever they are. To this end, the Kiloutou Group will undertake the investments and will pursue the necessary actions to expand its branch network and expand its range of equipment and services to improve the customer experience.“

Olivier Colleau, Managing Director KILOUTOU
  • On the material side, the year 2018 will be marked by a record of investments up to 184 million euros, allowing a renewal of the park and the arrival of machines able to bring answers to the challenges of respect for the environment, safety on building sites and facilitating the uses on complex sites (electrical machines, on battery, ergonomic …). Investments are also made in rotating telehandlers and shovels equipped with demolition kits. A new range of “green spaces” on battery is also newly proposed.
  • In Europe, the KILOUTOU Group aims for growth in all countries where the rental brand is present. This will be achieved through the deployment of new agencies and acquisitions. At the same time, the group is involved in 15 real estate projects in France aiming at the transformation of agencies already started in 2017.
  • Finally, KILOUTOU will continue to assert its position as multi-specialist in equipment rental. Like the new Kiloutou Energy brand, which combines temporary energy and pumping solutions, agencies specializing in modular building leasing in Lille and Bordeaux will be united under the Kiloutou Module banner. At the same time, Kiloutou Energy will experience growth thanks to branch openings in major cities (Paris, Lille, etc.).

Like the new Kiloutou Energie brand, which groups together temporary energy and pumping solutions, the branches specialising in modular construction rental in Lille and Bordeaux will be brought together under the Kiloutou Module brand. At the same time, Kiloutou Energie will expand through the opening of branches in major cities (Paris, Lille, etc.).

True to its values, KILOUTOU will engage this development strategy by maintaining its commitment to responsible behavior through concrete actions and social, environmental and economic initiatives. These actions will include the professionalization of KILOUTOU teammates and its customers through training programs focused on health, safety and prevention, preventive maintenance of equipment ….

Innovate for customer experience without improved decrease

n 2017, the KILOUTOU Group initiated a survey of its professional customers to better identify their sources of satisfaction and their daily needs. The results of this large-scale survey (1,230 professionals from different trades, surveyed throughout France) from which emerged 6 important expectations: Accessibility in case of hardware problems; accessibility over the phone; availability of materials; quality of the service and reception at the agency; information on the status of a delivery / return; Tips in choosing the right material.

To meet and improve the Customer Experience, KILOUTOU has set up an innovative service device:

New digital services unlike any before

KILOUTOU, which already met some of the expectations of artisans and businesses (Customer Relationship Center open as of 6:30am, Marketplace for the management of its rentals on the internet, permanent stock of the most used equipment …), today reinforces its panoply of services.

Innovative, two new digital services are designed to respond with more agility and responsiveness to the daily needs of professionals:

  • A technical assistance application simplifies hardware repairs on site. It makes it possible to manage the requests for troubleshooting, to immediately locate the technicians located near the site concerned, to follow in real time the resolution of machine problems.
  • The function Kiloutou Tracking feature allows you to follow in real time, on your smartphone, the stages of delivery of equipment on site. An SMS confirms the customer the expected time of delivery, then another is sent 10 minutes before arrival on the site. This feature also allows him to request the recovery of the material by simply scanning the barcode present on the hardware.

BIM Ready, Kiloutou is committed to the digital transformation of the building

To assist companies and construction majors in the use of BIM for the construction and sustainable development of buildings, KILOUTOU provides intelligent 3D objects.

As of today, 50 materials from the Elevation Handling range are available free of charge on the BIM & Co download platform. 3D objects make it possible to visualize the curves and load charts to help choose the most suitable equipment for construction sites. The objects are offered in RevitTM and IFC format.

Scalable and interactive, the KILOUTOU 3D object offering will be regularly optimized thanks to the implementation of co-development with the BIM Managers.

KILOUTOU’s commitment to the digital transformation of the building will also result in the launch, during the second half of 2018, of an innovative and unprecedented digital tool. Designed to help choose the most suitable material at the heart of a construction site, this digital technology will allow to project in situ an augmented reality image of a selected material.

A new agency concept

At the same time, KILOUTOU is engaged in the transformation of its agencies and the proposal of a new customer experience. This vast redevelopment project starts with urban sites. By June 2018, the new agency concept KILOUTOU will be applied to the 15 agencies located in Paris. The rehabilitation program will then extend throughout France, at a rate of twenty to thirty each year.

The “new agency KILOUTOU” was designed to be clear, welcoming and encourage exchanges and advice between team members and professionals. In this way, storage and customer circulation areas are clearly identified. The implementation of the materials follows a business logic. The interior lighting has been improved with the generalization of  LEDs to obtain brighter spaces. From reception, the individual counters reinforce the customization of relations between KILOUTOU customers and team members. Finally, product tests are performed on an area provided for this purpose.

The expression of this new concept is visible from the windows which are now dressed in vitrophanies enhancing the services offered by the brand.