Published by Farmers Guide, April 2008.

SFC Contract's new 15t, 360-degree, Caterpillar 312C excavator.

Diggers and dozers for hire

BRIGHTLINGSEA-based SFC Contracts was started four years ago by Mark Cooper as a diversification from the family's farming activities.

The spark for the business came after Mark was asked to help out at a local landfill site with the farm's bulldozer.

"They were having trouble getting the type of machine they needed, so I helped them out," Mark told Farmers Guide. "After a while I asked if they would like me to put a dozer in for them full-time, and they agreed."

Mark hadn't been interested in getting involved in general farm contracting, where there he saw too much competition and too little reward, but he felt there was a viable business in hiring out self-drive plant to the construction sector.

"When we first started we offered tractors and tankers as well, but after a couple of years we decided to concentrate on bulldozers and 360-degree tracked excavators," Mark said. "We now run diggers from 12-25t, including a long-reach model, and dozers from 15-22t, with blades or rippers (similar to an extremely heavy-duty subsoiler)."

Today the fleet includes nine machines - five dozers and four diggers - and when Farmers Guide visited in mid-March, Mark was proud of the fact that only three of the machines were in the Yard at Hall Farm.

"There tends to be more work in the summer months, but this year we have keep the whole fleet quite busy," Mark said, "in fact two of the machines have just come off contracts and will be going back to work after the Easter break.

"I'd have to admit we have been quite lucky since we started and have had a good run of jobs, but you never know when you might end up with a yard full of equipment and no work for it."

Most of SFC Contract's turnover comes from hiring self-drive machines to blue-chip contractors carrying out large construction projects, although the firm also supplies machines with drivers and carries out smaller projects itself.

"We had a large dozer on hire at the Colchester Garrison development and have also supplied machines for work on railway projects," Mark said, "and one dozer is just back from a Needham Chalks site in Hertfordshire.

"We have supplied machines to customers as far away as Devon, although there are others at Braintree and in the Ipswich area."

Some of the machines have been out on hire for more than a year, but SFC Contracts will just as happily supply a machine for a day or a week.

"We'll happily supply a self-drive dozer or digger to people who know what they're doing," Mark said. "But I'll go out and drive a dozer on site if required, and we employ a full-time operator, Mick Cawte-Powlsland, who is an expert 360-degree operator - and will also drive a dozer if necessary."

Mick joined the team - which also includes Mark's wife Nicky, who looks after the admin for the business - about 18 months ago and has been kept busy working on a variety of projects.

"One of Mick's specialities is refurbishing farm ponds, although we have also been involved in repairing reservoirs, as well as general groundworks and reinstatement work," Mark added.

SFC Contracts doesn't run its own trucks to move plant from customer to customer, but uses reliable local haulier Brett Haulage.

"It's a system that has worked well and it means we don't have to worry about running lorries as well," Mark said. "We simply arrange the haulage and pass the invoice onto the customer. Whether they need to hire a machine for a day, a week or a month or more, the haulage cost is the same."

The firm keeps its fleet up to date and has just bought two new Caterpillar bulldozers and two new Caterpillar excavators as part of the company's replacement and expansion plan.

"We can now offer a 25t excavator, which is the biggest we have operated to date," Mark said. "We can now offer a 12t, 15t and 25t machine, as well as the long-reach digger, to better match the plant to the job at hand.

"It's the same with the dozers; we have models with extra low-ground-pressure tracks and PAT (power angle and tilt) blades to suit the customer's requirements."

The latest Caterpillar plant was bought from main dealer Finnings, although past machines, including Komatsu dozers, have been supplied by Nelson Green & Sons, of Bourne, Lincolnshire.

"It's not like farming where the dealers are on your doorstep," Mark said. "Some agricultural dealers are starting to offer construction equipment, but it tends to be at the lighter end of the market.

"It's still quite a specialist sector so if you want to see the dealers you have to travel, but that also means that there's room in the market for a companies like ours to offer a professional, but personal, local plant hire service."

SFC Contracts can be contacted on 01206 302765, or visit: www.sfc-contracts.co.uk.

Mark Cooper with one of the company's bulldozers.