BTE Plant Sales Limited, a leading independent distributor of construction equipment, opened their fourth depot in Droitwich on the last day of February. At the opening Ben Elliot, BTE’s founder and Chairman, announced record sales of over £56m for the financial year just ended. The new depot will serve a wide range of customers in the West Midlands, Shropshire, Worcestershire and Herefordshire and joins BTE’s existing depots in Leyland, Leeds and their Head Office in Markfield, Leicestershire.
Founded in 1990 by Ben Elliott, BTE has grown throughout its 28-year history with a strong reputation for excellent customer service. BTE represent leading original equipment manufacturers, and CEA members, across a large territory which covers the north and central UK. BTE brands include Thwaites site-dumpers, market leading Kubota mini-excavators, Manitou materials handling equipment, BOMAG light compaction equipment, Atlas Copco compressors and Epiroc hydraulic attachments. BTE customers include utility contractors, local authorities, civil engineers, housebuilders and the all-important rental (plant-hire) sector.
Construction equipment leads a tough life and even the best machines need regular servicing and maintenance. All four BTE depots hold stock of genuine parts and run a fleet of service vehicles, equipped with the latest diagnostic equipment, manned by experienced ‘factory trained’ service engineers who provide on-site support to BTE customers throughout the territory.
Mike Roby, BTE’s Sales Director, commented at the opening, “The investment we’ve made in Droitwich shows our commitment to providing an outstanding experience for all our customers, throughout our territory. The depot will hold stock of new and used equipment, genuine parts and several of our mobile service engineers will work from the depot. This will vastly improve our aftermarket response times and will provide a key facility for customers to collect parts. Our goal is to continuously improve customer service and ensure that the products we supply are fully supported throughout their lifetime.”
This is a timely move as despite experiencing three consecutive quarterly declines, construction output in Great Britain grew by 5.1% in 2017 due to strong growth at the end of 2016 and in Quarter 1 2017. Construction output is forecast to grow in 2018 and the government has set a housebuilding target of 300,000 homes each year over the medium term. The West Midlands is still a major economic area with industrial redevelopment continuing, housebuilding on the increase and major projects like HS2 happening in the coming months.
