Select Stone reaches new heights with HD Hyundai Excavator and Wheel Loader
Contractors looking for recycled building materials in Northamptonshire, need look no further than Oundle-based Select Stone. Established 21 years ago, the company recycles inert construction and demolition waste from across the region, crushing, screening and cleaning the material, to produce a variety of stone products, from MoT Type 1 and 6F2, to screened top soil.
The latest machines to join the company’s growing fleet of equipment are an HD Hyundai HX300AL crawler excavator and an HL960A wheeled loader. Both were supplied by local dealer Willowbrook Plant and they join another HX300, an HX140A, an HX220A along with a range of specialist crushing and screening machinery.
“We’ve had a used HX300 for a while and an HL960 loader that had worked for seven years and 15,000-hours,” said co-owner of the company Mark Mullock. “In the last three years we’ve only had to replace a door catch and a radio.”
That impressive reliability and durability record, along with the high level of service and back-up from Willowbrook Plant, have seen the company return to Hyundai for these latest machines. Select Stone had tried other brands of machinery in the past, but none could match the performance, economy and reliability of the Hyundais.
Indeed, the new HL960A shovel only arrived on site for a demonstration, but was purchased before it was allowed to leave. Company founder Dave Bright spends much of his time in the loader and, for him, the machine’s high level of operator comfort, along with its productivity and reliability, were the main criteria.
Both of the new Hyundais have been supplied with a three-year repair and maintenance contract, with Willowbrook responsible for all service work. “They are really good on fuel and I can’t fault the back-up from Willowbrook,” said Mr Mullock.
“We like the comfort of new machinery with a warranty,” he said. “Willowbrook monitor the machines for us through Hi-MATE telematics and they book in the servicing for us to keep everything up to date.”
As well as recycling within its own premises, Select Stone has a growing fleet of crushers, screens and trommels that are available for hire with smaller excavators. These machines can be supplied as a complete team, to recycle material on a contractor’s own site, reducing the movement of waste and recycled stone to and from the site.
Select Stone was formed more than 20 years ago by Mr Bright, who continues to run the recycling yard near Oundle. Mr Mullock joined the team nine years ago and he has taken responsibility for the hire fleet and for dealing with the company’s growing local contractor customer base.
“We’ve got a good relationship with everyone that we work with locally, it’s mutual trust,” said Mr Mullock. “We pretty much recycle everything that comes into the site and the hire side has been very busy this year.”
The company will be looking to add further 20-tonne machines to the crusher hire fleet, but he remains happier with the larger HX300AL for the main recycling site.
“You can’t beat the extra reach of a 30-tonne machine,” said Mr Mullock.
“We made the decision to go for a 30-tonner, as the difference in cost between a 20 or 30-tonne excavator isn’t that vast and the fuel consumption isn’t that much more. But with the performance that we get, it just makes sense to have the HX300AL.”
Select Stone is currently filling a void on land close to its Oundle base. Once levelled, the site will provide the hard standing for a new yard for the company, continuing the virtuous circle of recycling building waste into construction stone.
