50 Not Out for James King (Plant)

Last year James King (Plant) celebrated the incredible milestone of 50 years in business, as a former employer of myself for just over a year when I was living in the area, I was keen to revisit the boys behind this family business to get the full story.

Today I'm reproducing this feature which was previously published in Earthmovers Magazine, bringing it to life on the internet with alternative images.

Like many an Irishman back in the 50’s and 60’s James King and his wife decided to move to the UK in 1958, eventually settling in the beautiful rural village of Blisworth, on the outskirts of Northampton.

Having secured regular work in nearby Rugby where he was engaged in loading coal for the steam trains, the birth of 3 children followed over the coming years, all boys, namely Sam, Pat and Seamus all three of whom are still involved in running the family business to this day.

In 1975 James King decided to set up in business on his own and purchased his very first machine, which was a Caterpillar 951A tracked loading shovel, a machine which is still preserved at the company’s yard today.

Track shovels were a very popular tool in the Northampton area back in those days and seeing a window of opportunity James later added two Caterpillar 941B’s to his fleet, which were mainly engaged in plant hire activity.

As time rolled on the business expanded and gradually moved into the earthworks contracting side of things, in addition to the plant hire side. As the old saying goes behind every successful man is a good woman, and that was certainly the case for James, as his wife Tess was always a driving force behind the scenes, standing by him through thick and thin and even during tough times of recessions, she always stood by him.  

On leaving school the middle son Pat decided to join the family business, followed a few years later by the oldest son Sam who had been working as an article clerk at a firm of accountants in Northampton. He was later followed by Seamus when he eventually left school and they have been there ever since.

Sam is mainly to be found in the office, with Pat out on sites managing jobs, while Seamus was more often than not in the workshop undertaking servicing and repairs, and when needed out on site running machines, it’s always been a proper team effort with the Kings.

Over the years the company has worked on a number of high-profile road project jobs such as the first link of the A14 Cranford to Thrapston section, where they were sub-contracting to the famous AF Budge earthmoving business.

The last two big road projects the firm worked on were the £32 million Flore and Weedon A45 bypass scheme, otherwise known as the Daventry Development Link and the A43 project close to Towcester both of which were undertaken for Balfour Beatty.

Keen readers may recall that we visited the King’s on the A45 job back in 2017 when they took the bold move of investing in 3 Ex-UK Coal Caterpillar 777C dump trucks. With favourable ground conditions those trucks enabled them to shift an estimated 450,000 cubic metres on a cut and fill operation in record time. Sam told us that the trucks were eventually sold and delivered to the docks in Southampton to start a new life overseas.

Pictured left to right : Seamus King, Pat King, James King Jnr in 2021

During their time working on the Silverstone bypass the King’s also undertook a lot of work at the nearby Silverstone race track. The initial work there involved digging out for and installing safety gravel traps on the corners of the course to stop race cars from hitting the crash barriers.

Talking about another job they undertook there Sam said, “There was a really bad year at Silverstone with wet weather, which in turn led to visitor’s cars becoming stuck in the fields causing chaos, so the Formula One guru at the time Bernie Ecclestone told the site that they would have to improve the parking situation or he would take the race away from them, this worked well for us as we were there, and had the kit available to undertake the job of installing a more permanent all weather parking surface to prevent the repercussions of the previous year”.

The King business model has changed somewhat these days, moving away from the major road projects and more into earthworks for house building and industrial development.

Pictured Left - Sam King Managing Director, Right - Jason Stirling Earthworks Foreman - Operator

This work is undertaken for three main clients, namely Houlihan, M&J Evans Construction Ltd and Alliance Groundworks & Civils, talking about this collaboration Sam said, “Between the three of them, they keep us fairly busy. It’s good that there’s a long-standing loyalty between us now, whereas on the big road jobs loyalty was hard to find, and it was extremely cut throat. But here if you do a good job you are rewarded for your efforts, it’s a nice working relationship, the way it should be”.  

The company’s current plant fleet extends to around 50 machines, with hydraulic excavators primarily Hyundai with some Doosan (now Develon) ranging from 8 tonnes, up to 30 tonnes, Volvo articulated haulers in the 25 tonne and 30 tonne size bracket, and Caterpillar D6N’s and D6T dozers and a bit of everything else in between including a rare HBM-Nobas badged as a Bomag BG 190 T motor grader.

The business, was as previously mentioned, established on the back of tracked loading shovels and there is still at least one on the fleet, the popular Caterpillar 963C model that was in the workshop during our visit.

They are still running quite a few Volvo A25C articulated dump trucks, a model that they hold in high regard as one of the best of its kind, “They are venerable trucks, give very little trouble and just keep going if serviced and well maintained,” said Sam. We saw some of these machines still putting in a good shift on the two jobs we visited.

On our first site in Stevenage the King team are engaged in the major earthworks for Houlihan, who as previously mentioned are a great company, who they do a lot of work for.

On this massive housing development site, King’s site foreman and long-term employee on the firm Jason Stirling was spreading the soil delivered to him on the A25’s using the Cat D6T LGP which is fitted with the Trimble GPS system as are most of the production dozers and excavators on the fleet.

“The GPS systems have been a game changer for us, everything is so much simpler, faster and above all safer, with less if any men needed on the ground”.

The King’s two Doosan DX225LC-7 hydraulic excavators were also working on this site, and they also have a 30-tonne DX300LC-7 on the fleet, all of which were supplied by Pioneer Plant Sales.

The Kings have also recently invested in 4 additional Volvo A35G models that were up for sale in the Buckingham Group plant disposal auction which will prove to be a good investment for the business going forward.

The excavator fleet is largely dominated by the Hyundai brand all of which have been supplied by Willowbrook Plant Sales over at Rockingham. “We have developed a good working relationship with Willowbrook and we like the Hyundai brand which we have found to be reliable and very capable machines”, said Sam.

We caught up with one of the 22-tonne class Hyundai HX220AL models on the next site in Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire operated by long term operator Nigel French. On this site King’s are undertaking a massive cut and fill earthworks operation in chalky soil, for another long-term customer of theirs, M&J Evans Construction Ltd.

At the fill area we caught up with another familiar face on the firm, Paul ‘Pip’ Inwood, site foreman/operator who these days is running a nice Cat D6N LGP with PAT blade and Trimble GPS. The last time we caught up with Paul in 2014, he was running a Hyundai 220LC-9A on a wind farm project, but apparently spends a lot more time on the dozer these days.

The company currently employs around 40-45 members of staff most of whom have been with the firm for a long time, from my own personal experience, the King’s treat employees very well, hence the low turnover of staff.

Supporting Sam, Pat and Seamus, much of the day-to-day management of the plant is undertaken by well known local Plant Manager Gary Follen, while hugely experienced foreman fitter Nick Leatherland, an ex-O&K man, running the workshop.

The next generation of the King family are now becoming established within the business, with Sam’s son Aiden, who has a degree in motor engineering, also working in the workshop, Pat’s son James is also out on the sites, running jobs from the machine. And last but not least, Seamus’s son Elliott, has recently joined the business also driving machines himself.

Summarizing and talking about the future Sam said, “Our plan is to continue with our sustained growth, not to get too big to quick, we have always been sensible, never trying to run before we could walk”.

I think the fact that they are still going strong after 50 years, is all credit to the lads and the team they have built around them, with many big names in the game locally having come and gone, it’s a testament to the professional and knowledgeable way they do business, and of course the legacy of the late Mr James King himself.