Keen on Attachments

One thing is for sure; you don’t arrive on many sites these days without seeing a bucket or attachment that has been designed, and manufactured by Keen Attachments, and on a recent trip over to South Wales, I took the opportunity to finally visit the family-based businesses facility in Caldicot, not far from Chepstow, in this piece previously featured in Earthmovers Magazine.

We sat down with Keen Attachments Managing Director Andrew Hicks, to talk about what makes the business tick along, the buckets, grading beams and all other attachments in between.

Andrew’s journey into the world of metal fabrication started when he was an apprentice welder at Fairfield Maybe Ltd, who were a local manufacturing company in those days, before eventually moving on to another similar manufacturing business as a time served welding inspector.

A slight change of direction then saw Andrew move on to work for Chepstow Plant Hire, a big name in the plant hire game, where he was to work for around 12 years. Talking about his time there Andrew said, “I got all my knowledge there really on buckets, attachments, various conversions, making ROPS cages, fabrication dipper arms, just about every challenge you could think of, we basically fabricated everything there, whatever Eddie Hayward wanted, we would make it, we wouldn’t buy anything, we even manufactured Komatsu cabs, it was just one challenge after another and I loved it.

During my time there I also saw that a bucket was a consumable, because they are always wearing out with constant use, so we used to work on buckets from Miller, Geith and Lemac, you name it, we repaired it.

I became really good friends with Vic Feary at Lemac and we are still in touch to this day, and to be fair, at the start of our business he helped me a lot with some of the design profiles which he allowed us to copy, and we supplied a few to him and vice versa and from that situation Keen grew into being”.

Andrew officially established Keen Attachments some 14 years ago in 2012. “I didn’t have the funds to set up the business myself, so I borrowed £50,000 on my mortgage. A little unit became available over the road, so I took it on, and started doing bucket manufacturing, repairs and a lot of work for Chepstow Plant Hire, he helped me a lot, by paying us a lot quicker, just to get the cash flow going, I was then able to buy my first plasma cutter.

I then went to college and done an auto cad course, and completed a solid work course, so I could load the plasma cutter and start up with my own cutting, and we have grown from that.

After around 2.5 years of trading this larger unit, you find us in today became available, I lost a lot of sleep worrying about it as it was a big step, but we took it on and we haven’t looked back since.

So today we are now employing 15 people, and we take on apprentices, we have four of them who have come through the system and most of the staff here have been with us between 7 & 10 years, they are very loyal individuals and we wouldn’t be where we are today without them, it’s a real team effort here.

As you saw downstairs in the workshop, we do all our cutting in-house, and we are currently installing a new state-of-the-art Lincoln high-definition plasma cutter, with an oxy propane dual head, which also features extraction in the bed. We try to be self-sufficient as much as possible, but sometimes we bring in certain products, but everything we bring in, we can actually build from scratch, so if we run out of stock, we can build it.

If any of our customers expect a product in 2 days, we can do it in 2 days, normally it’s a 5-day turnaround, but the boys can turn stuff out rapidly if required, they are always busy with everything. We’re in total control of all our manufacturing now, because we have the machinery and the ability to do it, it’s like a well-oiled machine down on the production floor”.

As previously mentioned, the business is a real family affair, as Andrew explained, “On reception we have Lois Pinchard, who is my niece, she’s been with us for 2.5 years. Laura Hicks is my sister and the office manager, she’s a great asset to the business, and I’ve given her and her partner Phillip Pearce who is the workshop manager, shares in the business, 5 each as a thank you, because they’ve been by my side all the way, and when I’m in a bad place, they normally have to pick me up!

My wife Lisa Hicks tackles the important job of credit control, chasing up the unpaid bills, and we have Joanne Little, in accounts, who has been with me for about 10 years, she worked with me at my previous business too. 

75% of the rest of the team, they have all come through the apprenticeship route, we took on apprentices from a very early stage and they have stayed with us for the duration. We train them up and as and when we grow the business and take on new machinery, we send them on the relevant courses for the equipment, and keep them up to speed with the latest techniques and skills for the job in hand.

We have built the business to have that family feel, and we are very much a people business, and our customers trust us because of that, I’m not saying we don’t make mistakes, because we do, but we always stand by it, and if it’s our fault, I put it right, sometimes even when it’s not our fault!    

As long as someone hasn't rung me and said, well, you know, I've only been doing topsoil, and the bucket's falling apart, it just doesn’t happen, there’s normally an operator involved that’s actually ripped the bucket apart, but I’d rather take it back, put it right and then send it back out so the customer isn’t losing any working time, and off the back of that, people say oh their a good company, and we do try to keep people happy, which goes a long way in business”.

Looking to the future the company has a new hydraulic quick coupler coming out, designed by Andrew with Darien Jones, their in-house design manager and Phil and they are continually improving the product portfolio, and responding to customer feedback as and when required.

Keen also have a new dealer in Switzerland now, who is largely focused on the agricultural and forestry sectors, so Andrew is enjoying the challenge of different attachments for that market, and they continue to push into the French market. “We have a fair bit going on in France now and across in the Channel Islands too, and we have an exciting project going on there now that will be coming to fruition in the coming weeks, and who knows, we might even be manufacturing across the English Channel in the future, similar in model to what we have done here, so exciting times ahead for sure.

Of course, France is a very different market, they use different wear pads, different teeth systems, different hanging brackets on top and a different quality of bucket, so there is lots to look at and think about, plus of course the language barrier, but I do love the challenge presented from different markets”, said Andrew.

We took a tour around the bustling production line, starting with sheet metal being cut to design by the original plasma cutter, we also saw the new cutting machine which was still in the stage of being installed, we witnessed bucket welding and in the spray booth we saw buckets that had been painted drying out. Another feature that stands out with Keen buckets and attachments is the personalization name plates that they fit on them, often colour coded along with the head-stocks, this helps with identification on busy sites and in many ways deters theft of the equipment, it’s a really nice touch, I think.

Summarizing Andrew commented, “I love what I do, what we have created here and I love coming to work in general, some people have said to me about retiring, but it freaks me out because I would miss this, I would miss seeing people and talking to customers, I love the challenge of what we do, it keeps the brain active and I just enjoy it”.

From a personal perspective, I definitely felt the buzz of enthusiasm from the entire team at Keen Attachments on the day of our visit, a lovely team of people, who are all in it together and totally keen about what they are creating on a daily basis.