One of the L 550 XPower loaders is operating at Ready Mix Tees Valley's newly-opened plant on the banks of the River Tees in north-east England, and another at another new company facility in Leeds
Ready Mix Tees Valley MD James Greenwood says the reliability of the L 550 XPower is enabling the company to cope with the increased production.
“We had used a number of shovels for stocking the [Tees] plant since we started operations,” he said. “Both manufacturers’ products had caused us some issues with reliability and build quality. That was something we couldn’t afford with the increase in production from the new batching plant.”
Liebherr GB’s wheeled loader product specialist Michael Atkinson and area sales manager Carl Longhorne suggested a trial of an L 550 XPower at the Tees plant, and Ready Mix Tees Valley was impressed by its fuel consumption of less than 6 litres per hour, cab comfort and productivity.
Tees Valley has joined forces with another local family-owned firm Shire Aggregates, which occupies part of the large yard area. It imports aggregates by ship from around the UK from which are then screened, with more than 80% used by Tees Valley for concrete production.
Tees Valley claims to be the largest concrete supplier in the area, producing 50,000m3 last year.
As well as the two loaders, Tees Valley has bought four HTM 905 Liebherr mixers, mounted on Mercedes-Benz chassis and provided by Northside Truck & Van which has a rolling stock mixer truck programme with Liebherr.
The mixers are highly specified and include user-friendly features such as remote grease points, sub-frame covers and the Litronic EMC Controller.
The company was launched in 2008 when James gave up his position with a major pharmaceutical company to invest in concrete. Tees Valley now operates two depots on the banks of the Tees, in addition to the new Leeds facility.
