Hyundai dealer Taylor & Braithwaite, based in Cumbria in the heart of the Lake District, has recently sold its 500th new Hyundai machine since taking on the dealership in 2010. Civil Engineering company, L & W Wilson, based in Kendal Cumbria, purchased the machine – a 22 tonne R220LC-9A.
To celebrate this milestone T&B offered to donate £500 to the charity of choice for the buyer of the 500th machine! L&W Wilson managing director, Alan Wilson, chose Cancer Research UK.
About L&W Wilson…
L & W Wilson, is a family run business which was established over 40 years ago and now boasts a team of over 130 people. Operating in the Cumbria and North Lancashire areas – it provides a wide range of services including – aggregate supplies, plant hire, demolition and disposal of contaminated spoil. The company also specialises in groundworks, tipper hire, low-loader hire, civil engineering and operates tipping and recycling facilities.
Another string to the L & W Wilson bow is housebuilding – where they build housing developments in the Lancashire area. Surprisingly the company bought their first site during the recession! L& W Wilson managing director Alan Wilson said, “Norman Tebbit once quoted, ‘if you can’t find work get on your bike and go and look for it’. So we did and bit the bullet – we bought a site that we had already completed the groundworks on in a good location in Lancashire. It was a success! We are now working on another two sites with three more to follow.”
The company’s fleet…
L & W Wilson has a fleet of 40 excavators – 13 of which are Hyundai ranging in weight from 2.7 tonnes up to 30 tonnes. The company purchased the very first Hyundai 20 tonne machine sold by Taylor & Braithwaite in 2010 – a R210-9, which is still working in the company’s fleet today. The company also own four Hyundai loading shovels – the first one purchased was the HL770-7 – which is also still going strong! The latest Hyundai in the L & W Wilson fleet is the R220LC-9A – the fourth Hyundai 20 tonne machine purchased from T&B.
Mr Wilson said, “The R210-9 was the first Hyundai we bought from T&B in 2010. Although we had operated a Hyundai HL770 loading shovel since 2004, which had proved very reliable, we did not know a great deal about the brand or T&B – but we liked their approach and they had a good reputation.”
We tried the R210-9 machine and were very impressed. We then went on to buy our first new Hyundai loading shovel from T&B in the same year. This machine was a good size for the quarry work with just over a four cubic metre bucket.”
Mr Wilson added, “The -9 machines were a big leap forward from the -7 machines, according to our operators. The operators really like the machines and say they are comfortable and good all round workhorses – they do the job efficiently and reliably – that’s all you could ask for in a machine.”
“We always get a really good service from T&B – they respond very quickly to any problems we have had. We can’t afford down-time – it’s very rare we do have a problem – but if we do they are on it like a shot. We never have to worry – T&B will sort it out.” Commented Mr Wilson.
All of the bigger machines in the L&W Wilson fleet are piped by T&B ready to take any attachment including hydraulic breakers. All machines are fitted with hydraulic quick hitches to ensure fast and efficient bucket change over when necessary.
The new R220LC-9A machine is currently working on BAE Systems £300m redevelopment of its submarine base in Barrow.
Taylor & Braithwaite’s £500 donation to Cancer Research UK…
To celebrate the sale of the 500th machine sold T&B committed to offering the buyer of the machine £500.00 to donate to the charity of the buyer’s choice. Alan Wilson of L&W Wilson chose Cancer Research UK. The £500 cheque was presented to Joan Russell, who is part of the Kendal Support Committee, at a hand-over ceremony, attended by Alan Wilson and T&B director Ian Burton.
Mr Wilson said, “I chose to donate the £500.00 to Cancer Research UK because everyone has had dealings with cancer in their lifetime – we have recently had an employee who has suffered cancer so it’s very close to our hearts here at L&W Wilson.
I use to collect for a cancer and polio charity many years ago and I feel it’s a very worthy cause to raise funds for. The more research that can be funded the better and the more we can fight this dreadful disease. Three of our employees recently completed a triathlon – they did one leg of the triathlon each and all money raised went to Cancer Research.”
About Taylor & Braithwaite and the Hyundai relationship…
Taylor & Braithwaite was almost 100% focused on agricultural machinery until director, Ian Burton joined the company back in 2005. Now T&B is closer to 95% construction machinery. It was Ian Burton who contacted Hyundai in 2009, which was at the height of the economic recession. Mr Burton said “Not many people were jumping up and down at this point to sell excavators, but I saw it as a great opportunity to enter into this industry whilst it was still quiet in order to build ourselves up for when the market recovered. From this point on the business grew.”
Mr Burton had his own forecast to sell 12 machines in the first year as 24 in the next and so on. In reality T&B effectively doubled this rate and turnover began to increase considerably. Today T&B is celebrating selling its 500th new Hyundai machine.
Ian Burton, Taylor & Braithwaite said, “We are extremely happy with the success of the relationship between T&B, HHIE and our long standing customers and it is very apt that the sale of the 500th machine has gone to the customer who bought our first demonstrator 20 tonne excavator back in 2010.
Cancer Research UK is a very appropriate charity to choose as unfortunately we have all been affected by this disease either directly or indirectly so we are really pleased that the money is going to them.”
Hyundai’s construction equipment account manager, Mehmet Ay commented on T&B’s success, he said “T&B’s Hyundai adventure started in 2010 – their flawless journey since the start of our cooperation led to an expansion of their territory and to becoming a very successful full range Hyundai dealer in a relatively short period.
We are very proud to see the 500thmachine being delivered into the market by T&B. This excellent achievement is the result of an extremely skilled team at the company. Their commitment and outstanding efforts on both sales and service levels has made T&B leaders in their field and they continue to reassure customers of the Hyundai quality throughout northern England.
Congratulations to the entire team of Taylor & Braithwaite as well as L&W Wilson for being part of this milestone.”