EXECUTIVE REPORT
The company continues to add significant numbers of Kubota excavators.
Eminent Emmitt
Nick Johnson visits Emmitt Plant which has been busy buying new machines to serve both in-group construction activities and other customers.
With its base near Ipswich and depots at Diss and Corby, Emmitt Plant Ltd is a large, privately owned hire company well placed to cover the east of England. It is part of One Group Construction and provides most of the Group’s internal plant requirements, as well as servicing a broad external customer base.
Emmitt Plant was established in 1979 by the holding company SEH Group which was re-branded in 2013 to One Group Construction. Now all company vehicles carry the words ‘Powered by One Group’ to indicate that they are part of a private business with a commitment to teamwork.
Having grown significantly over the years, Emmitt Plant today runs over 1,000 items of plant directly managed by Ron Chidgey and fellow Director Luke Findlay. Both are practical plant men and their knowledge of the local market, customer needs and new machine specifications, availability and pricing has resulted in a modern fleet of machines from a carefully selected number of manufacturers.
The business only supplies non-operated plant and its fleet embraces the traditional mix of compact excavators, site dumpers, lightweight compaction equipment, telescopic handlers and portable compressors. It also provides standard-sized tracked hydraulic excavators weighing up to 22 tonnes.
To retain fleet standardisation, there is a maximum of three different makes per machine category. Compact excavators come from JCB, Kubota and Takeuchi, site dumpers from Ausa, Thwaites and Terex (with the latest being JCB-badged Terex models), vibratory rollers from Bomag and Hamm, compressors from Atlas Copco and Doosan, and telescopic handlers from JCB, Manitou and Merlo.
Interestingly, all the Emmitt Plant standard-sized excavators are currently Hyundai machines supplied through the company’s Corby depot. Emmitt bought its first Hyundai in 2013 and Luke Findlay says that, having added over 25 units weighing from 12.5 to 22 tonnes, they have proved cost-effective, reliable and popular with customers.
Emmitt is impressed with the latest-generation HX machines and its most recent purchases comprise one 14-tonne HX140L and two 22-tonne HX220Ls. Ron Chidgey says, “We like the fact that they come as standard with double-acting auxiliary hydraulics and Hyundai’s new all-round camera system.”
More Kubota minis in the fleet
Ron Chidgey, left, with Luke Findley and some of Emmitt Plant’s latest Hamm vibrating rollers.
The One Group currently turns over in excess of £150m per annum and includes the well-known local businesses Jackson Civil Engineering, SEH Ipswich and SEH French. Due to its greater geographical spread, Jackson has its own plant department, but Emmitt still supplies the company with machines and, for the other Group companies, it is their complete plant provider, re-hiring items not in its own fleet.
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For its latest compact excavators Emmitt Plant has added more Kubotas. This year, new machines have included five 2.7-tonne KX71-3s, four 8.3-tonne KX080-4α midis, a 1.7-tonne U17-3A plus a 4.8-tonne U48-4 and a 1.6-tonne KX016-4. The company has been running Kubotas since the early 1990s. Ron Chidgey says Emmitt now has a total of 140 compact excavators with a mix of conventional tail, reduced tail and zero tail swing models to suit specific site and customer requirements. For example, the 1.6-tonne conventional swing Kubota KX016-4 with cab, two speed travel and side extending tracks proves particularly popular with local authority customers.
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