The Derbyshire Peak District is renowned for its high-quality limestone, which is used to produce a huge array of products from aggregates to make-up. The area contains some of the largest quarries in the UK, which tend to use their in-house resources for extracting the product. However, some use the services of specialist contractors to undertake secondary quarrying work, typically contract crushing, or to develop a specific area of a site.   It was at one such location that we met Banner Contracts, one of the UK’s foremost contract crushing companies. Already undertaking a sizeable crushing operation on another part…

Ely Skip Hire Ltd established in 1985 are a family run business that started out supplying a small number of mini skips locally in and around Ely.   To date, and operating from two sites based in Ely & Cambridge, Ely Skip Hire Ltd has grown to be one of the premier skip hire companies in the area providing skip hire and waste recycling to homeowners and construction sites across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk.   Doug Stuart, owner of Ely Skips is extremely proud of their green credentials. They aim to recycle 95% of all waste they handle, keeping to a minimum…

SANY excavators will be playing a major role in a £40m upgrade to the water network at Peterhead in Scotland over the next couple of years. Main contractors AG Wilson Civil Engineering, who are based in County Armagh in Northern Ireland, could have as many as 12 SANY models on the site once the project is fully up and running.   Included will be a recently acquired 40 tonne SANY SY390H excavator and two SANY SY215C machines from SANY’s Irish dealer, Sleator Plant. They join a number of other SANY’s ranging from eight tonne upwards, in addition to a SANY…

Whilst working for a contractor in North Wales, Alun Hughes saw an opportunity to offer his services to landowners requiring estate maintenance, something his employer at the time didn’t do. The purchase of a used 8t machine saw Alun undertake several jobs before taking the full time leap into running his own company.   With the estate management work decreasing and an increase in jobs asking him to cater more in forestry works, Alun looked to replace the 8t machine he was running with a small timber grab and upscale to a JS130 with a larger attachment. Once this step…

When Clinton Hastie of Suffolk based Groundwork Solutions Ltd (GSL) rang an old friend to ask what excavator brand he would recommend he suggested SANY. That was just over a year ago, and today GSL has 10 SANY machines and planning to add more in the months to come.   Established in 2011, GSL is involved in a variety of projects ranging from affordable housing and other residential contracts to roads and drainage and is on course to double its turnover this year, such is the demand for its commercial and domestic groundworks services across Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and…

A key member of the team at KM Products in Laurencetown, Paul McMullen is a professional digger driver with thirty-five years’ experience, but he’d never met a SANY before. That was until Kevin Murphy of KM Products bought a SANY SY155U from Sleator Plant.   Paul does all of KM Products’ digging and excavating works and he is also contracted by other companies looking for an expert ‘digger man’, He’s driven just about every excavator brand there is but never a SANY and he’s really liking the experience. “Kevin is expanding his site considerably, and he decided to buy his…