New Komatsu Dash-7 wheel loader for W. Clifford Watts

Long-standing Komatsu customer purchases WA380-7 for loading duties at waste-treatment centre

YORKSHIRE-based W. Clifford Watts have taken delivery of a new Komatsu WA380-7 wheel loader to work at their Gransmoor Waste Treatment Centre, near Driffield. The centre processes and recycles construction waste and recovers reusable materials such as washed sands and recycled pipe bedding.

The new wheel loader is primarily a replacement for an ageing Komatsu WA380-5 which has given the company more than 10 years’ loyal service and will now be used to feed the precast concrete plant run by sister company Wattsmix.

Richard Watts, director of W. Clifford Watts, said: ‘We have run Komatsu machines for a number of years and in that time they have proved to be reliable and trouble free. In view of this, there was no hesitancy in purchasing Komatsu again.

‘However, as any prudent company would do, we did research the market and asked a number of major suppliers to tender. We found that the overall lifetime costs of the Komatsu wheel loader were less than the others that we looked at. This coupled with our positive experience of running older Komatsu machines, meant that we were happy to once again choose Komatsu.’

Although W. Clifford Watts already have five other Komatsu wheel loaders in their fleet, this is the first Dash-7 model that they have bought. Mr Watts continued: ‘The new Dash-7 promises to be even more economical in terms of fuel consumption and this was another factor when looking at the overall costs.

‘Although the machine comes with free three years’ factory-scheduled maintenance, we have also purchased a flexible extended warranty from Komatsu, to extend this period further, which again allows us to properly budget for future running costs.’

Rob Willmott, area sales manager for Marubeni-Komatsu, commented: ‘It is always good to see customers who have run Komatsu machines for many years having the confidence from the experience of previous ownership returning to Komatsu to renew their equipment. It is also especially pleasing to have won the tender in what is a competitive market place.’

W. Clifford Watts’ long association with Komatsu dates back to the early 1990s when they purchased their first Komatsu wheel loader. The company still uses a WA380-3 which has now been running for 17 years and is still going strong.