Strategic review

Next phase of Ambition with Purpose

We have delivered another year of growth in 2023/24 driven by the strength of our North American markets and ongoing momentum. We completed successfully our Sunbelt 3.0 strategic plan and launched the next phase of our strategy, Sunbelt 4.0 – Runway for Success. We launched Sunbelt 4.0 in April at Powerhouse, a combined internal meeting and external Capital Markets event which brought together c. 5,000 team members from the US, Canada and the UK, c. 300 customers and suppliers and c. 160 investors and analysts. Powerhouse was a great success, providing a unique opportunity for everyone to immerse themselves in Sunbelt 4.0 and understand the breadth of our capabilities and end markets and most importantly, our culture. 

We are proud of our performance through Sunbelt 3.0 and are excited about the next phase of the Group’s development. Sunbelt 3.0 provides a strong foundation from which we can capitalise on our existing competitive advantage. We have grown our General Tool and Specialty businesses, expanded our geographical footprint, progressed our cluster strategy, embedded new technologies to enhance order capture and dynamic pricing while also investing in a transformative technology ecosystem, made progress against our sustainability initiatives while flexing all parts of our capital allocation priorities. We continue to embed sustainability into the business and our new Sunbelt 4.0 strategy has brought additional clarity and forward motion to our commitments. We are delighted to announce our commitment to being Scope 1 and 2 Net Zero by 2050 and we have a clear, tangible path to get us there, with a shorter-term Scope 1 and 2 carbon intensity reduction target of 50% by 2034. 

Our success is made possible through the dedication of our team members who deliver for all our stakeholders every day, while ensuring our leading value of safety remains at the forefront of everything we do. 

During the final year of Sunbelt 3.0 we executed on all our priorities. We invested $4.3 billion in new rental fleet and delivery vehicles to fuel our existing locations and greenfield additions. This investment positions us well to capitalise on the opportunities arising from ongoing structural changes and our expanded network. We added 113 locations in North America, 66 by way of greenfields and 47 through bolt-on acquisitions. We are now present in all 50 US states and eight Canadian provinces. We have created a strong platform for future growth and are confident in the ongoing health of our end markets, and the fundamental strength in our cash generating growth model.