Brothers in Arms

by Nick Drew | Mon 12 Nov 2018

Brothers in Arms

S. J. Willis & Sons Ltd is the archetypal definition of a true family business, I popped along to a site where one of their machines was working for a chat with the youngest member of the family Josh Willis.

Based in the Mid-Devon town of Crediton S. J. Willis & Sons Ltd is headed by Steve Willis who established the business some 20 years ago. These days Steve manages the firms building division. While the plant hire division is managed by the oldest son Matt. The middle sibling is Sam, while as previously mentioned, the youngest is Josh, pictured here in his Kubota U27-4 mini excavator

The guys are big fans of two particular brands of Japanese mini excavators those being machines manufactured by Kubota and Takeuchi. Not only are the machines of excellent quality, but they report of first class service from their local dealers for the two brands, Chepstow Plant Sales and CBL Plant Sales.

Historically the company has had a long association with the Takeuchi brand and they purchased their first ever example, a TB15 FR over 16 years ago as show in this shot from the Willis archives below.

Talking about the lad’s choice of machines Josh said, “We really like the Kubota and Takeuchi machines as they are as reliable as they come and never give us any problems and they are great to operate. Both myself and Sam are really impressed with the Kubota U27-4, they are good all-round diggers, a good weight for towing and with their compact dimensions they are brilliant for tight quarters working. We actually specialise in zero tail swing machines, narrow access diggers and matching dumpers.

We visited Josh on a site in Holsworthy they where they were on hire to Exeter firm JTT Contracting Ltd doing some drainage works behind the Fire Station. A quick glance at Josh’s machine and it was quite clear that he and the other brothers are operators who take great pride in their machines. This example was well “pimped up” with chrome mirror guards featuring integrated LED lighting, a cab wide LED strip light on the roof, CB set up, bucket ram guard and additional flashing lights on the engine canopy. The beading of the rain drops showed an intense level of polishing had been going on too! The machine was a real credit to Josh to be honest.

We will be visiting the firm on a wider scale for a full report in Earthmovers in due course but for now check out our video footage from this visit.

The magazine for owners + operators

Digger Man Blog

Brothers in Arms

Loads more

Red & Grey all the way for Mays

It’s Intermat Time!

Snow Boarder v Loader Plough … The Chase is On!

Subscribe to Earthmovers