Hill Engineering has an excavator attachment for any season
Established in 1994, Hill Engineering has been designing and manufacturing excavator attachments for 23-years. The company’s award winning quick coupler, the TEFRA, is designed for excavators ranging from 3T to 120T. Its bucket range includes the TITAN HD (standard) and HDX (rock) buckets from 13T upwards, which encompasses all forms such as trench, grading, riddle and V buckets. The company also manufacture rippers up to 75T and pallet forks up to 20T.
Product Range
The company is best known for its award winning fully automatic hydraulic coupler TEFRA, which has transformed health & safety on construction sites around the world – and has been significant in the company’s financial growth and increase in market share. TEFRA has proved itself as the safest coupler on the market today – with only three moving parts – it has reduced downtime extensively and it allows operators to be more productive in their operations.
In 2014 Hill introduced its TEFRA Tilt. The TEFRA Tilt is designed for customers who need the full functionality of a Tilt bucket but see the versatility of having the 180-degree tilt function on all of their attachments with a standard pin grabbing system. Most tilt rotate systems are designed with dedicated attachments, which comes with a high level of investment. Hill Engineering sales and marketing manager Oliver Phelan said, “The TEFRA Tilt represents a very strong middle ground. The product itself has really taken off. We are selling more and more as the months go by. We have seen a 60% growth in sales of the Tilt over the last year and it’s still growing.”
Hill estimates that a Tefra Tilt in comparison to its equivalent in a tilt rotator is approximately 30% of the cost. So, it’s the ideal ‘inbetween’ product where it gives the operator the majority of the functionalities they need but at a fraction of the price.
Hill’s Thumb is the latest addition to the product range. Phelan said, “The ‘Thumb’ concept is quite a new concept in the UK but in other markets, such as the USA, it’s huge – 90% of machines will be fitted with a ‘Thumb’ in the USA.
In the Irish & UK market, it (Thumb) has been very well received. We have seen growth in interest in this product and we feel that there is future growth to be had. We’ve seen progression in the material handling and demolition sectors where rather than just having a grab on the machine, the ‘Thumb’ allows the user more flexibility where they can some of the functionality of a grab, but also then be able to pick up large bulk material and hold it in securely in the bucket.”
Phelan added, “Again the ‘Thumb’ offers an alternative product at the fraction of the price – it doesn’t have all the functionality of a grab but it has a very similar impact when using it. When it comes to the general construction market we feel that over the next five-years we will start to see ‘Thumbs’ coming into play more often in this sector on excavators – again purely down to the versatility that it offers.”
Steady Growth
Hill’s level of growth in the last three-years has been significant, the company foresees this steady growth continuing until the end of the decade. Phelan reported, “In 2015 we saw a slight dip in the market, however, we continued to experience growth even when market dips were increasing, our client base was growing.”
Phelan added, “2014 was an exceptional year for everybody having come out of several tough years and our clients were in a position to renew their fleet. We are now at a point in 2017 and 2018 we are experiencing a similar cycle where three-years on we are starting to see the plant hire companies renewing their fleet after 2-3 years of operation.”
Exports and emerging markets
Hill Engineering’s products are exported worldwide. The US and Canadian markets are continually gathering pace for Hill following strong levels of industry growth over the past number of years and with a high level of market confidence on the ground this market is expected to grow significantly in the coming years.
Growing markets for Hill include the Middle East, Africa and China. Phelan added, “We are focused on the markets that we have invested time in, however, markets such as South America, Russia, Africa and India are continually developing, processes are changing and safety regulations are becoming more and more stringent as the global safety standard ISO13031 becomes embedded takes precedent.”
Commitment to the Irish market
“While our export markets are very important to us we have never lost sight of the markets that helped us get to where we are today, Ireland and the UK.” Phelan said.
Hill Engineering have a significant share of the UK and Ireland market and the company is one of the last few manufacturers based in Ireland. The whole build process including fabrication is completed in the company’s factory in Newry.
Phelan said, “We are 100% committed to the Irish market not only from a supply perspective but also from a manufacturing perspective. We make every effort possible to keep our supply chain locally sourced.
We have recently strengthened and added to our sales team in Ireland with the appointment of William McIntosh who has been with the company for several years and has been brought up through the business in different departments.”
McIntosh said, “We want to significantly increase our market share in Ireland over the next two-years by supplying quality products. The Irish construction market is back in growth mode which is why Hill have committed the people, time and production to meet the needs of this strategic market for us.”
The future
On the company’s growth Phelan said, “We have had many client acquisitions in the last year These new clients have switched their allegiance to Hill because of the reliability of the products we manufacture – it’s a testament to how they are made and designed. These companies do not want downtime with their machines. We have other big clients about to make their move to Hill in the near future and we continue to work with the large manufacturers and machine dealerships.”
Hill have appointed John Boyle as general manager, an expert in process management and engineering, who has worked in the Irish market for many years. Hill Engineering managing director, Ian Hill said, “John will take Hill to its next phase of development and brings a fresh approach to management, manufacturing and stock control”. Hill concluded, “Rather than putting more hours in the working day we are looking at the way we work – work smarter not harder. This will be of great benefit to our clients with stock on the ground, more accessibility to our product and reduced lead times, to match the demands that their clients put on them for delivery of machines. We are still a company that’s in growth mode, but with the team we have in place right now along with the quality of product we manufacture we are giving ourselves the best opportunity possible to take our business to new and exciting heights.”
