Portsmouth based AJ and MJ Plant Sales goes all out for Volvo Excavators
Established family-run plant hire and plant sales company, AJ & MJ Plant Sales Ltd of Portsmouth, has broken with tradition and opted for a considerable number of Volvo branded excavators, 26 in all this year with a further 40 units ordered for next year.
Whilst the company has had some experience owning and operating thirty-tonne Volvo EC300’s, rigged specially for a long-term demolition contract, this is the first significant order for Volvo excavators to be placed by Managing Director, Andy Murphy.
“Our experience operating Volvo equipment thus far has been very satisfactory with very good aftersales support coming from SMT GB. Apart from that, we fully appreciate the quality and residual values the Volvo brand represent,” explains Andy. “We had been in discussions with Volvo for some time about making a change to our usual brand of excavator and, encouraged by the comments from our regular customers, decided to opt for a total of 26 machines this year and place an order for a further 40 machines for delivery next year.”
The initial batch of excavators comes in the guise of 10 fourteen-tonne EC140E’s, 8 larger twenty-two tonne EC220E’s, and eight reduced swing ECR88Ds supplied by SMT’s utility dealer, Plant & Engineering Services of Exeter. All the machines have been deployed on a variety of long and mid-term self-drive hires throughout the south of England. “We are ideally situated just off the A27 at Portsmouth which gives us immediate access across the south of England,” says Andy.
“We have recently acquired larger premises and new offices here at Farlington as our hire contracts continue to expand,” he continues, citing the fact that the company has over 117 machines out on hires ranging from between 5 and 50 tonnes in operating weight, as well as machines prepared for sale in the yard. AJ & MJ Plant Sales also hire dozers and Volvo articulated haulers.
Andy Murphy established the company some 25 years ago, initially specialising in site cabin hire which then grew into plant and specifically excavators. The company entered the groundwork contracting sector briefly before Andy started selling capital equipment for a major manufacturer and eventually decided to go it alone. Not having looked back, Andy was joined by Ben Newman as AJ & MJ’s General Manager and today, the whole operation is managed by just four people.
“It’s certainly challenging at times but keeping the team lean keeps our overheads down and another part of our success is that we don’t go buying new equipment on a whim,” says Andy. “Everything we purchase is carefully considered in terms of how long we want to keep it and what we hope to get for it later. Ostensibly, we are equipment traders but our hire division continues to grow steadily, hence our forward order for another forty Volvos for 2019.”
SMT GB markets Volvo Construction Equipment products which include wheeled loaders, articulated haulers, hydraulic excavators, Volvo utility equipment and Volvo road equipment products in Great Britain. There are eight strategically placed customer support centres, a dedicated National Used Equipment Centre and a network of utility equipment dealers to ensure high quality customer support is maintained throughout the country.
