JCB win huge order from A-Plant
Major UK plant hirer places £16 million order for 550 machines with the promise of more to come
JCB have won a deal for 550 machines worth £16 million from one of the UK’s leading rental firms – with the promise of more orders to follow. The deal has been struck with A-Plant and is part of a phased investment programme which has now seen the plant hirer buy a total of 1,089 JCB machines in the last nine months.
The latest order for 550 machines includes more than 400 mini- and midi-excavators, including 50 JCB 8085 eco midi-excavators. The deal also includes Loadall telescopic handlers and rough-terrain forklifts and is one of the biggest to be secured by JCB this year.
The machines will be supplied through dealer Greenshields JCB.
The announcement was made as JCB played host to hundreds of existing and prospective customers from the tool hire and small plant and equipment hire sectors at its world headquarters in Staffordshire, in the presence of guest of honour Lord Digby Jones.
JCB’s UK & Ireland sales director, Yvette Henshall-Bell, said: ‘To win a deal of this size is testament to the quality and reliability of JCB’s machines. It also shows huge confidence in the market. We are absolutely delighted to have won this business, which cements a relationship going back a number of years.’
A-Plant are part of the Ashtead Group, which is one of the world’s biggest hire firms and has extensive operations in the UK and the US. Ashtead’s US operation – Sunbelt – has also just ordered 494 machines, including a fleet of almost 400 Loadall telescopic handlers and more than 40 tracked excavators, in addition to backhoe loaders, Vibromax compaction equipment and rough-terrain forklifts.
The total value of the A-Plant and Ashtead deals is £36 million.
A-Plant procurement director Andrew Winlow said: ‘This latest order marks the continuation of a long-standing working partnership with JCB which is founded on the shared core value of delivering the highest-quality equipment to the market. The scale of the order reflects the strength of our relationship and our positive outlook towards future market growth, which will see us add further JCB models to our fleet.’
Lord Digby Jones, a senior advisor to JCB, added that orders of this size are not just good for jobs and good for tax generation, they fly the flag and lead the way in putting UK innovation and value-added manufacturing on top of the world.
