What We Do and Where We Do It

OUR BUSINESS

Aggreko provides power and temperature control solutions to customers who need them either quickly, or for a limited period of time. We have two business models. In the Local business, we hire our equipment to customers who operate it for themselves, although we retain responsibility for servicing and maintenance. In the Power Projects business, we operate as a power producer; we install and operate power plants and our customers pay us for having the generating capacity available, as well as the electricity we deliver to them.

We do all of this on a global basis and, in 2013, we served customers in about 100 countries; we run our business from 202 service centres and offices, located in 49 countries. The solutions we provide range from the very large and complex to the very simple.

Large and complex would include:

• keeping the lights on in entire countries when their existing grid cannot cope with demand by delivering hundreds of megawatts (MW) of additional power; 
• helping oil refineries to maintain production in hot weather by providing additional cooling and power; and
• designing and providing critical power infrastructure for broadcasting, security and field-of-play lighting for major sporting events such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup.

Simple would include: 

• providing temperature control in an office building after the air-conditioning has broken down;
• installing chillers to make ice for temporary skating-rinks; and 
• providing a generator for a few days to a power utility while it carries out improvements to transmission lines.

The distinguishing features of our business are:

• The products and services we provide are mission-critical. Power and temperature control are utility services without which our customers cannot carry out their business. Most customers use our services only occasionally – but, when they do, they rely on us to keep their business or even whole cities and countries functioning and safe. 
• We are not exposed to the fortunes of any single end-user market. All businesses use power, and many use temperature control. Our equipment and services are transferable between end-user segments, so the generator used today in a petrochemical plant may be on a film set tomorrow and a building site the day after.
• We operate globally. This means that we can respond to events as they happen anywhere around the world and can move our equipment to wherever it can deliver the best returns.
• We are organised to address all types of opportunity, from the rental of a single generator for a weekend, to managing huge projects, worth tens of millions of pounds, delivering hundreds of MW anywhere in the world. 
• We are experts. We are focused on a very narrow range of products – power and temperature control –and that means we have technical expertise, equipment, skills and experience on a scale, and to a depth, that we believe nobody else can rival. 
• We design and manufacture our own fleet, which means that we are able to optimise it for the specific requirements of our customers and of the rental business. It also means that we can build our own rental fleet more cheaply than our competitors can buy theirs. 
• We keep our equipment for its useful life, so the better we build, maintain and refurbish the equipment, the longer its life will be and the more money we make for our shareholders. We therefore take enormous care to build and maintain our equipment to the highest standards and this, in turn, means that our customers see high quality and reliable equipment. 

By developing these competitive advantages, Aggreko has grown over the last 50 years to be the world market leader with outstanding people, strong customer relationships, a powerful brand and an excellent reputation. We have also developed a business large enough to enjoy economies of scale, which has enabled us to deliver highly attractive returns to shareholders while delivering outstanding value and service to our customers.

OUR LOCATIONS

Aggreko has global reach through an international network of service centres and offices spanning North and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Australasia. Our 202 service centres and offices in 49 countries enable us to combine local knowledge, strong customer relationships and efficient logistics to provide excellent service and speed of response, while our commitment to managing the business and assets on a homogenous and global basis means that each local service centre can draw on huge resources to support its customers.

This is a key competitive advantage: being close to our customers means we can be there in an emergency, able to respond quickly to their needs. At the same time, as a global business, we can use our resources strategically, moving staff and equipment around the world to wherever our customers need them.

A list of our locations is shown on our map with service centres and offices highlighted in bold having been opened or acquired in the last 5 years.