MPS/Hidromek Dig Day Proves a Success

For those of us who were tired of turkey and mince pies over the festive period, there was a welcome break on offer in the form of the MPS South West Ltd/Hidromek Dig Day event, that was held over two days between Christmas and New Year, and we popped down to Cornwall for a look.

MPS South West Ltd are the newly appointed dealers for Hidromek in the South West, having signed up to become a dealer during the Bauma trade fair in Munich, and you will be able to read more about this in the next edition of Earthmovers Magazine.

Jason McCullough the founder and Managing Director of MPS South West, thought it would be a good idea to host a Dig Day at the earliest opportunity and he must be commended for getting it organized in such a short space of time. 

There is a thriving plant and machinery community in the South West, who are always keen to check out the latest machines on offer, and despite some horrendous weather on the opening day, there was a steady flow of visitors coming and going during the duration of my visit.

Jason has not been resting on his laurels since taking on the dealership and already has two demonstrator models out doing the rounds with local contractors and owner/operators, consisting of the 23-tonne HMK230LC-5 and the 15-tonne class HMK145LCSR short radius model, these two hydraulic excavators were available for potential customers to try during the dig day, and were joined by a HMK102S backhoe loader, which had been shipped down from Scotland for the event.

The dig day itself was a nice laid-back affair and it was great to catch up with so many of the guys down that way including local legend Roy Gilbert, Kris Bartle, Graham Sandercock, Alex Sillifant, Sam Sewart and Sam Troup as well as a host of others who were keen to discuss the merits of the Hidromek brand.

I took along well-known Welsh based backhoe loader operator Kenneth Hatcher who was keen to try out all the machines on offer. Ken is a hard man to please, but he was in the main complimentary about the machines overall. Some of the visitors even made a family day out of it, bringing along thier partners and children! 

Talking about the event BPS MD Jason said, “We estimate that there were over 100 people attending across the two days, one of whom even came down from Dorchester. On a map it may not look far but for us Cornish folk that’s a fair jaunt.

All the feedback we have received has been extremely positive in regards to the build quality. Everyone was impressed with the strength of the heavy-duty doors and strong chassis boom/dipper track frames etc.

We also received a lot of good feedback from inside the cab, such as them being nicely laid out and comfortable along with how quiet it is so you can really relax.

One customer commented about the zero swing HMK145LCSR saying ‘I could happily sit in there for my 12/14-hour days and not be cramped up’. The power delivery from the engine and hydraulics as well as the smoothness was the talk of the two days. Everyone said they were such nice machines to jump into and after a few pulls be on top form grading. ‘That’s a tick in my box’ commented by one of the visitors”.

Jason continued, “Obviously, the main question on everyone’s mind was price and warranty, what with it being a new product in our area. People are always going to be nervous of new things. When discussing prices everyone was surprised with how well priced the machines are in regards to other brands along with warranty packages. All of which we can tailor to suit the customer’s needs really has left some customers seriously considering their next purchases.

What we as a company can take away from the open days is that people are now talking about Hidromek in the South West and it’s a serious conversation.

To summarise, for us it really was worthwhile doing these days and we are now busy doing quotations for our new customers. I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone who took the time out of their Christmas period to join us on the dig days, even though the typical Cornish weather tried to put a dampener on things. We cannot thank everyone enough and we look forward to 2023 with the best foot forward”.  

I look forward to seeing how things pan out for MPS and the Hidromek brand in the South West, and have a good feeling that we will be seeing a lot more black and white Turkish delight in this neck of the woods.