The company that placed the UK’s biggest order for Liebherr’s new articulated dump trucks won’t be driving them very far… the vehicles will be working on the expansion of the manufacturer’s UK headquarters.
Thomas Plant Hire of North Wales has struck a deal that will see it become one of the country’s biggest users of Liebherr earthmoving equipment. As well as seven of the recently launched TA 230 G8 dump trucks, the 21-million-pound package includes 16 dozers and 17 excavators. Deliveries have started and will continue into next year.
The trucks will be employed in muckshifting duties on the 15-acre site of Liebherr GB’s new facility adjoining its existing nine-acre complex in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire. Work will begin soon following delays caused by Covid-19 and the investment will ensure the company has the resources and capacity to support continued growth in the UK.
Family-owned Thomas Plant Hire was founded in 2000 and has a network of five depots in addition to its Caerwys head office. It has run an L 566 XPower wheeled loader in the fleet for some time and Managing Director Wyn Thomas has been impressed. ‘Our existing loading shovel has been a very reliable tool with back-up to match so at an early stage in our expansion plan for 2021 we sat down with the team from Liebherr to discuss what they were able to do for us.’
‘Where some manufacturers were saying they had little or no capacity, Liebherr had stock available and capacity in their manufacturing programme to fit in our requirements. The early arrivals on the fleet have been accepted very well by our in-house teams, our clients and our operators and are proving to be the machines we expected them to be. They are all returning excellent fuel figures and are also very reliable, both points being important to our bottom line.
‘We are very confident in the Liebherr products and that shows, with us being the first company to order them. They look like very well-built trucks and will slot into our operations very well. We look forward to continuing our good relationship with the Liebherr team as time goes on.’
Header image: Official handover of Thomas Plant Hire’s first TA 230 Dump Truck. Left to right: Daniel Sullivan, Gwyn Thomas and Wyn Thomas of Thomas Plant Hire; Lee Palmer, Richard Gee and Michael Atkinson of Liebherr GB
