Hyundai dealer Willowbrook Plant Services, based in Corby, Northamptonshire has been supplying Hyundai excavators to plant hire company Emmitt Plant since 2013. The company now run a 25-strong fleet of Hyundai machines ranging from 12.5 tonnes up to 22 tonnes. Emmitt Plant’s latest purchase were three 22 tonne R220LC-9A crawler excavators.

About Emmitt Plant…

Emmitt Plant began its history back in 1979 and the company is now one of the largest privately owned Plant Hire companies in the East of England with depots in Ipswich, Suffolk, Diss, Norfolk and Corby, Northamptonshire.

Emmit Plant is part of One Group Construction, a privately owned group with 12 different companies offering complete construction capability, from civil engineering, building construction, renewable energy solutions, plant hire, asphalt surfacing, and construction support services. The group’s annual turnover is around £140 million, and employs in excess of 500 staff.

The company’s fleet…
Emmitt currently run in excess of a thousand items of plant - from mini excavators to dumpers, rollers to compressors and a range of telehandlers.

The company run 25 Hyundai machines which comprises the12.5 tonne R125-9A, the 14 tonne R140-9 and the R140-9A and five 22 tonne R220-9A machines. The last three of the R220-9A machines were purchased earlier in the year from Willowbrook.

Emmitt Plant director, Luke Findlay said, “We chose Hyundai predominantly as they represented excellent value for money. However, one of the biggest deciding factors was the dealer support and service we get from Willowbrook which is excellent.”

Mr Findlay continued “When we first opened the Corby branch of Emmitt Plant in 2008 we were running Case and Volvo machines but the dealer we were using closed its doors for good in 2012 - it was then we began talks with Willowbrook about purchasing some heavy line kit.

We have formed an extremely good relationship with the Willowbrook team - both on and off the pitch! Brian, Steve and their team are always on hand - nothing is too much trouble.

We get through a considerable amount of parts in the plant hire industry - the machines get a lot of wear and tear - we can guarantee that Willowbrook get the parts we need in double quick time.”

Mr Findlay added, “We have very little downtime with the Hyundai machines as they have proved to be reliable and the perfect machine for the plant hire sector. We are a self-drive plant hire firm so we don’t have our own operators, however, our clients have really taken to the Hyundai machines and have expressed that they are impressed with both the fuel efficiency of the machines and the power behind them. One of our customers, who had been using a 14 tonne machine, said that when we have finished with it he would buy it!

Our very first Hyundai’s were purchased in 2013 when we bought six 14 tonne R140-9’s. To date we have invested in excess of £1.8 million in the brand - all supplied by Willowbrook.”

Mr Findlay concluded, “We are looking into the possibility of investing in the machines from the new HX range at the end of this year - they look very appealing especially from a client and operator safety point of view with the AAV 360 ° camera system. It’s a fantastic initiative by Hyundai to offer this system built in and they are well ahead of their competitors who, as far as I am aware, only fit similar systems as an after-market product. Some of the leading contractors are already specifying this level of safety on machines working on their sites.

Also I believe the new range offer an even better fuel efficiency than the -9A series! We’ll have to wait and see - so watch this space!”
Currently the majority of Emmitt Plant’s Hyundai fleet are working on new housing developments around the East Anglia and the Midlands regions.