SHC on the CASE

This article first appeared in Earthmovers Magazine about a year ago, but I don't think I ever posted it on the blog afterwards, so I am delighted to feature it today, featuring some alternative images.

Family based business Steve Hoskin Construction Ltd was established back in September 1995 by Steve Hoskin and his wife Kay, initially operating out of the humble beginnings of a small room above the garage of the house, with Steve working essentially as an owner/operator. These days the company now employs over 300 skilled professionals and has celebrated over 30 years in business.

In 2021 Steve took on the role of Chairman to the Board of Directors, and handed the reins over to his son Neil Hoskin who officially became the Managing Director, with his daughter Charlotte Worden, taking on the role of Creative Director. Just a year later the award-winning company became a third-generation business when Steve’s Grandson Dylan Worden joined the firm.

The family feel to the firm is really important to Charlotte, as is looking after the staff especially from a mental health perspective for which she must be commended. As part of her initiative, they hold a family fun day event every year for the staff, this year that fun day coincided with the 30^th year anniversary celebrations.

Even as a Director, Charlotte puts a strong emphasis on being approachable, commenting on this approach Charolotte said, “I want to shake hands and chat to the workforce and get a different perspective from different people, especially the youngsters, its important to me that they know and understand that they can progress up the ranks in the business, they are our future after all”.

Earthmovers caught up with Charlotte and the team at the massive Sherford project, which is a whole brand-new town being constructed in Devon, which is being built in phases having been started in 2015. This site will eventually contain 5,500 homes in total, with all the supporting infrastructure, including new schools, doctors and shops, with a large number of national house building developers involved.

Machines of Choice

Historically Steve Hoskin has always been a CASE man when it comes to machine selection, his very first machine was a Poclain 60, from the French manufacturer that was later to become part of the CASE organization, talking about this long-term relationship with the brand Charlotte said, “Dad has always been a fan of the CASE machines, and has always wanted to have the most in the South West, so whenever we get a new machine, we always strive for it to be another CASE, and sometimes though it’s very much an operator’s preference.    

CASE machines have always been the reliable option for us as a business, and with so much workload in front of us, with tight programmes, you simply need reliable and brilliant performing machines. In addition, CASE are more often than not the preferred machines for our operators, our own in-house mechanics prefer them too, because they are familiar with them, and of course our local dealer M & M Plant (Devon & Cornwall) Ltd are absolutely brilliant to deal with, and we have built up a very long-standing relationship with them, the support they give us makes all the difference as well”.

SHC are currently running a fleet of 43 CASE machines, an impressive tally that is believed to be the largest dedicated fleet of CASE equipment in the UK, comprising of 1 x CX80, 3 x CX90, 9 x CX130D, 7 x CX130E, 1 x CX210D, 12 x CX210E, 1 x CX210ES, 5 x CX250E, 1 x CX300E, 1 x CX350D, 1 x 590ST backhoe loader and 1 x 1650M dozer.

Larger machines have had to be added to the fleet as Charlotte explained, “Over the last year or so we have noticed we are having to price and tender for more deeper drainage than ever, and it seems to keep going that way, so it means that we are needing machines with more power and reach than previously required, and also for lifting duties of the large precast “easy” manholes that are specified today. For instance, years ago our go to hydraulic excavator for drainage work was the CX210, but more so these days it’s the CX250E, due to that extra lift capacity and power performance”.

Charlotte continued, “Earlier this year we purchased a new CASE CX250E for our operator Mike Glibert, he came through the construction skills course at Duchy College and came to us at just 17 years old, and went straight out on a digger as our youngest operator, and he has operated a wide range of machines since then. He now has the new machine which is also fitted with an Engcon tiltrotator, Mike is the son of Steve Gilbert our Construction Director, who has worked for us for 30 years, and his father before him, and now Mike is the third generation of the Gilbert family to be working for us”.

The business had always previously renewed its plant fleet every 3 years, but in the wake of the Covid lock down, the renewal plan was stopped in its tracks for a while, however they are now back in the swing of things, investing in new kit on a 3-year rotation schedule to ensure they always have the best and most reliable machinery available to undertake the work.

Talking about the fleet Charlotte said, “We have an app that we use, that helps us monitor the machines in terms of hours worked and for regular servicing requirements, which ensures everything is done as specified, keeping that machine in tip top operating condition and avoiding any costly downtime, it also allows us to see when the machine is effectively up for a change. Another good thing with M & M is that they will always loan us a machine if one of ours is down for any reason, which is just a fantastic level of support, and that’s another reason why our great working relationship has gone on for 30 years, we just can’t fault them”.

PEOPLE BUSINESS

Charlotte talked further about the staff they have working for them, “It’s very important to us to maintain that family feel to the company, we have 100 of our employees who have been working for us for at least 10 years, so it feels like we are doing something right, at the end of the day our men on the ground are the most important aspect, as without them, we can’t do the job.

We have also had some lads who, having worked for us, have decided to give it a go setting up in business themselves, and we have always been very supportive of other companies, as we know that its not always easy in business, so fair play to anyone that wants to give it a go. Future wise for us, you have to keep moving, you just can’t stand still in this game, so we will continue to grow and evolve going forward.

Staff development and health & safety is very important to us, so this year we have started an apprenticeship scheme, and we have created our own training hub in one of the buildings at our head office in Pensilva, Cornwall. It’s in its early stages at the moment, but we are going to set it up like a site, with pedestrian walkways, as they would find on real live sites, they will learn about inductions, and health & safety expectations so that when they go out onto site’s they are fully prepared and have a good understanding of what’s expected.

The long term plan is to set up a construction skills and plant & machinery training centre on land adjoining our head office, where we can train our own young people, on such things as paving, drainage, and foundations in addition to the plant training, that way we will have full control on the way they are taught these skills, which can only be a good thing”.

LATEST CASE MACHINES

We were on site to see the latest CASE machine to join the fleet the 30-tonne class CX300E, which, sporting the distinctive blue and white SHC livery, is the latest mount for operator Mark Weekes (32), replacing the CX250E he was running previously, that we featured as the cover story in the May 2022 edition of Earthmovers Magazine.

The Japanese built CX300E is powered for the European market by the 6-cylinder Stage V emissions compliant FPT NEF6 (F4HGE6138*V) diesel engine, which produces a power output rating of 193.4kW (259hp) @1900 RPM.

The engine is fitted with FPT’s patented and well proven HI-eSCR2 after treatment technology, which thanks to its integrated SCR catalyst and PM (Particulate Matter) management system, and the use of AdBlue, eliminates the need for any often problematic, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system.

This simpler system is said to be completely maintenance free and to use the manufacturers words, built for-life. Talking of maintenance, CASE have doubled the service intervals on the E Series range up to 1,000 hours for engine oil, fuel and oil filters which also helps to keep cost of ownership down.

Behind the rear panel doors, it’s the usual fare, on the nearside behind the cab, the doors open up to reveal the radiator cooling and air conditioning packs, a re-design in this area allows for the air conditioning radiator to be swung out to facilitate cleaning of the main radiator.

This area is also home to the air filter housing, batteries and coolant expansion bottle, in addition to some storage space for such things as cloth strops and other essential items like a box of grease tubes for example.

Behind the offside panel we find the now almost legendary Kawasaki hydraulic pump, which definitely appears to be becoming the benchmark in modern day hydraulic excavators. Also in this space, we find the oil and fuel filters, which once again, are all easily accessible from ground level for regular servicing.

Compared to the old D Series models, the undercarriage has been significantly redesigned on the E Series, hidden inside, the recoil spring assembly which maintains the track tension, has been compacted in length and moved forward away from the front top roller. This enabled the designers to create a larger hole below the roller to allow more muck build up to drop down, while not potentially dropping straight down onto the track tensioner, which is now completely out of the way, this also helps to prevent premature wear of those 2 top rollers. 

In addition, the 9 bottom rollers have been repositioned in order to produce less vibration and to offer a much smoother ride when tracking around.

Dominating the cab interior is the all-new 10” monitor, which in common with many other manufacturers these days now resembles a tablet device and is navigated by using key buttons at the bottom of the screen.

The monitor is spilt into 3 defined sections, top of the screen is the icon area, which displays operational information such as machine hours, oil and water temperatures, fuel level, working modes and the time.

Below that and forming the largest part of the monitor is the camera views, which can be configured in a wide variety of ways to suit the operator’s preferences, there is even an option, if specified, to have the 270^o “birds-eye” camera display on the screen, along with side a rear-images.

The air suspension seat which is standard, is integrated with the joystick consoles, so the sticks rise and fall with the seat at all times ensuring that small or large operators always maintain their preferred and most comfortable operating position.

The E-Series machines now have 4 work modes + 10 throttle position settings. The new modes consist of SP (Super Power) this mode preferred by operators offers maximum power and productivity and the throttle is set at 10.

P (Power Mode) is effectively the replacement for the old H & A modes on the previous models, and in this setting the throttle can be set from 1 to 10.

E (Eco Mode) is now the preferred setting for maximum fuel saving, combined with the throttle settings from 1 to 10. CASE suggest that in E 10 mode a 5% reduction in fuel burn can be achieved compared to Power mode.

L (Lifting Mode) is provided for optimised lifting work, with a power boost function and a permanently activated overload warning system incorporated.

Mark who has worked for SHC for 15 years gave us his thoughts on the new machine, “It’s an absolutely lovely piece of kit, I wouldn’t go back to the 250 now after being on this, for starters the lifting aspect, so much more power when lifting stuff, the overall stability is phenomenal, and the breakout force is impressive too.

Looking back at the jump between the CX210E and CX250E power wise, there wasn’t that much difference, but the jump between the CX250E and the CX300E is massive, you really notice it. We took delivery at the tail end of August, and I’ve clocked up 509 hours on the meter so far, and it’s been a total joy to be operating it”.

Elsewhere on this massive site we encountered one of the latest CX250E’s to be added to the fleet, this example was first seen at an M & M Plant Open Day event in May 2025, and delivered to SHC shortly after. This machine is operated by another long serving operator Luke Billing-Wills who is best known locally as ‘Pork Chop’ a first-class operator and a real West Country character!

Steve Hoskin Construction has a great reputation as a business in the South West, and it was fascinating to find out more, not only about their great relationship with the CASE brand and their local dealer, but overwhelmingly their forward-thinking approach to the well-being and training of their staff, it was good to see that SHC are well and truly ‘On the CASE’.