NATIONAL Pile Croppers (NPC) is targeting growth in the Scottish market after opening a new depot in Airdrie.
The company specialises in hiring hydraulic pile breakers – also known as pile croppers – which are designed in-house and are said to deliver safety, efficiency and productivity gains to a wide range of construction sites.
NPC is headquartered in the Midlands, and while it has always serviced the Scottish market since being founded eight years ago, having a dedicated facility north of the border is expected to be a game-changer for the business.
The depot, which opened earlier this year, is manned by experienced plant industry stalwarts Stephen Wyber (regional sales manager) and Bob Dyce (workshop manager), and located next door to long-standing attachments specialist Yarwoods.
NPC national sales manager Scott Fitchett told Project Scotland it was ‘imperative’ to establish a base in Scotland to service the market here.
“We exhibited at ScotPlant last year and a lot of people were asking when we were coming up here,” he revealed. “It’s important to have service on the doorstep. We stand out by being a small team. It’s very personal – one phone call, one e-mail. Reaction time (is vital) in the plant hire industry.
“We do what we do and do it well. It’s a niche market but there’s a lot of competition. It’s specialised. You can talk to a customer who may use one once a year, while some guys use them all the time.”
Pile croppers are attached to excavators and used to reduce or break concrete foundation piles. They bring safety benefits due to the reduction in manual labour and also time savings. The croppers are designed to cut piles cleanly and competently, with on-site training and advice provided.
NPC has a wide range of croppers available in different types and sizes. The portfolio includes quad croppers (designed to reduce augered piles up to 1200mm in diameter), dual croppers (used to reduce pre-cast concrete piles with single or multiple reinforcement bars), power croppers (which can reduce piles in sections of 1m and more at a time), CFA croppers (ideal for deep foundations), multi-bar croppers (for pre-cast piles with four or more reinforcement bars), a pre-cast 400 cropper (designed to remove sections of concrete at around 250mm per crop), and single-bar croppers (predominantly used with single re-bar piles and ideal for traditional and trench foundations in housing and commercial projects).
The latest innovations are the Contig 450 and 600 croppers, designed to reduce piles in a contiguous or secant wall formation where only two sides of the pile can be exposed and space between adjacent piles is tight. For projects where space is restricted, something small and versatile, which can be fitted to smaller machines, is crucial.
Scott explained the Airdrie depot was chosen for a variety of reasons, including its central belt location and accessibility to major routes. A concrete company occupied the space previously so no major fit-out operation was required.
For regional sales manager Stephen Wyber, who has over 20 years’ experience in the plant hire industry, one of the factors which appealed to him about NPC is that the firm is run like a family business. The combination of a small, tight-knit team operating in a niche market is one where he sees huge scope for expansion.
“I see (the relationship between us and customers) as a partnership,” he explained. “For too long the hire game has had a bad rep. Our equipment is checked every time it comes back off hire and goes to the next site in immaculate condition. You have to make sure everything’s right.
“We’re going to build in Scotland through our reputation.
“Last week we delivered a cropper to a site with 64 piles. The work was completed by the next day. Two workers performing the same task by hand would likely have taken two weeks. There’s also very little dust.”
