Takeuchis have the Moves for Jagger

The village of Lifton in Devon where I live, is rapidly gaining a reputation for having one of the most dug up roads in the county, just months after a lengthy single lane closure, to install electric power for Tesla chargers at a local hotel, and weeks since a total road closure for a sewer connection, the diggers are back again for another project, naturally I popped along to find out more.

The new job see’s long established Saltash based company Jagger Utilities and Groundworks Services Ltd, working on behalf of the National Grid, to excavate a 260m trench to lay a 4-way 160m diameter HV duct pipeline to provide power for a newly installed South West Water pumping station.

The ever-expanding company operates across Devon & Cornwall and are currently employing 39 employees. Managing Director Jonathan Jagger said, “We like to keep things local in terms of employment, procurement, training, and career development, as we continue to grow in line with our strategic aims and objectives, we are delighted to be working with some of the leading telecommunications and utility providers in the region”.

Like so many utilities outfits I have met over the years, the preferred mini excavator of choice is the Japanese Takeuchi range. Jagger run a variety of different sized Takeuchi’s with the most recent addition being a TB230 which is working on this jobsite alongside a smaller TB216, with the latter being custom painted in Jagger’s corporate green colour scheme. An additional TB250 is also on hire from CBL Plant Hire, who are also the local Takeuchi dealers.

Talking about the machines Jonathan said, “In the early days we used to run another yellow brand of machines, but once we turned to Takeuchi we’ve never looked back really, they are just a class act, so smooth on the levers, very responsive, which is essential in our game, and ultimately extremely reliable. Mark Crocker at CBL in Saltash has been selling us Takeuchi’s for many years, we also like the option to have them custom painted in our livery, I personally think they look better than the red!”.

When this job is over my intention is to visit the company on some other projects for a more in-depth article in a future edition of Earthmovers Magazine.

Checkout our video from the Lifton job.