Member Article

Family firm spends £8m on new gritters

A North Yorkshire firm has ploughed £8m into buying more than 100 new snow vehicles ahead of the winter months.

Econ Engineering, based in Ripon, manufactures and operates winter maintenance fleets for the local authorities in Kent and Aberdeenshire and several in between, producing more than 70 per cent of Britain’s winter gritting fleet.

The firm has increased its fleet by 50 per cent since the harsh winter of 2010 in preparation for the coming winter.

The firm’s sales director Andrew Lupton said: “There’s a six-month lead time on these vehicles so the decision to invest wasn’t one that was made overnight, we upgrade our vehicles throughout the course of the year and we’re continually looking to improve our fleet.

“We’ve made a record order of 100 DAF vehicles as well as several dozen Mercedes Benz trucks in the past few months, a total investment of £8m, which increases our fleet to 420 gritters.”

The new vehicles also feature some of the world’s most advanced monitoring and spreading equipment, ensuring the most accurate use of salt stocks and fuel loads.

Mr Lupton added: “We have been working hard to build up our fleet of new 2013 vehicles, and have decommissioned some of the less efficient older vehicles as well, to ensure our rental customers have the most up-todate equipment ahead of the winter season.

“It used to be the case that only customers buying new vehicles could have the latest kit, but about half of our contracts are for rental vehicles.

“And this latest investment is to deliver the newest and most technologically advanced gritters for these hire customers, as well as outright buyers.”

Family-owned Econ employs 200 people at its Ripon headquarters – making it the town’s largest employer – and has an annual turnover of £26m.

The company operates contracts with customers throughout the UK, including councils, local authorities, contractors and private businesses that undertake road maintenance work.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Walker .