Ken is Keen on the Attachments

Our old friend Kenneth Hatcher, is making more appearances on this blog than I do these days! The long serving backhoe loader operator who now plies his trade on a Doosan excavator for KW Bell Plant, paid a visit to Keen Attachments Ltd over the weekend and Ken was “Keen” pun intended, to tell us all about his experience.

Keen Attachments Ltd is a family business based in Caldicot, near Chepstow in South Wales. The business was founded in 2012 by Andrew Hicks, who has had many years of experience in the excavator bucket and attachment manufacturing industry. It is estimated that the Keen staff have a combined experience of over 75 years’ worth of knowledge in the design, fabrication and welding of attachments for such machines.  

The company operate out of a purpose-built facility which consists of a 9000 square foot production building and a 10,000 square foot fully secured yard area, with office space for the sales and support staff.

During his tour around the facility Ken was shown the state-of the-art plasma cutter which is where, after the design work, much of the process starts.The machine is a Blue Marlin High Definition and Oxy-Propane cutter it runs two heads (High Def) for 30mm down and the (Oxy Propane ) up to 200mm thick.They also run a smaller plasma cutter ,these machines are running 8 hours per day including Saturday mornings.

Another pivotal piece of equipment shown to Ken was the Morgan Rushworth Pyramid Roll (15mm rolling capacity) bending and shaping machine, they use these for all bucket backs from 7 tonne up to 60 tonnes, these machines are full CNC (Computer Numerical Control). A new dedicated paint shop is currently being built for those finishing touches.

Ken reports that Keen are currently flat out working seven days a week to keep up with the demand for their products, which is great to hear. In addition to the domestic market Keen are now making a lot of products for export, especially for the French market, for machines ranging from sub 1-tonne micro excavators up to 60 tonne machines.

A good social media presence has also helped Keen to gain some great exposure, with a number of high-profile owner/operators purchasing products from them including James Covell and Owen Mays to name a couple.

Keen are also always up to produce a bespoke product for customers so if you have something in mind you know who to call.

Following his tour of the facility Ken said, “I was very impressed and its great to see a local family run business doing so well, I also got the feeling that all the workers on the shop floor had a lot of time for their boss and it’s a real team effort by everyone involved, all credit to them really”.