CONTRACT hire specialist ACL has acquired Motorent, the last of the major independent contract hire and fleet management companies, for an undisclosed sum. The deal will add 6,000 cars to ACL's 19,000 strong fleet, catapulting it to 12th place in the league table of the UK's leading contract hire companies, and continuing the consolidation among the industry's top players.

Colin Thornton, sales and marketing director of ACL, said there was a good fit between ACL and Motorent. 'This gives us access to the sub-25-vehicle fleet sector in which we have hitherto not been involved, and gives us the ability to bring the qualities which we have as ACL to the customers of Motorent, adding value especially to their larger customers,' he said.

There are no immediate plans to integrate the two businesses - ACL based in Cardiff and Motorent in Stanmore, Middlesex - and they will be run as separate entities for the time being, although attention will be paid to maximising the purchasing power of a combined fleet which now totals 25,000 vehicles. Bernard Cottrell, chairman and managing director of Motorent, is understood to be staying on with the business in an advisory capacity. Motorent was founded in 1968.