Celebrating 50 years in business, Hinch Plant is recognised as one of Ireland’s leading plant hire operators and suppliers of construction machinery and contracting to the construction and civil engineering industry.
A successful family-run business, Hinch Plant has evolved greatly over the years to meet the requirements of its customers and now offers a wide range of services, including plant hire, civil contracting, haulage, self-drive plant rental, gravel / crushed stone supply, earthmoving and drainage contracting, farm and forest road construction, excavation and disposal of off-site materials, on-site crushing and screening for recycling C&D material and Waterways dredging.
The company was founded in Mountmellick, Co. Laois in 1968 by Fintan Hinch and is now run by his son Trevor with the help of his wife Eilish and a staff of 45, which is made up of site management, plant operators, truck drivers, mechanics, and administrative support. The Hinch Plant premises at Mountmellick includes a state-of-the-art workshop for plant equipment maintenance and repairs as well as stores and office facilities.
“Fifty years is a great milestone to reach,” Trevor enthuses.
“We have built up a large and varied customer-base during that time and have gleaned a wealth of experience in the plant hire and civil contracting business. We get a lot of repeat business and have many long-term clients who have been dealing with us for the last 30 or 40 years.
“We offer a unique service and are committed to providing complete customer satisfaction and solutions . We pride ourselves on our modern plant, our highly-skilled, professional and friendly staff and our competitive pricing.
Hinch Plant has an array of bulldozers, crushers / screeners, tipper trucks, dump trucks, excavators , rubberducks and excavator attachments available for hire. It has many years’ experience in the supply, use and hire of dozers and is the largest dozer operator in the midlands. The dozers are Caterpillar D6T LGP, Cat D6N LGP, Komatsu D65 EXL and Komatsu D65 PX’s. They can be laser controlled for sports pitches etc and use the latest GPS technology for greater precision. Some of the dozers are fitted with rippers – 36” Apex pads for bog conditions are available.
The company can carry out contract crushing and rock breaking using jaw and Impact crushers with on-board weighing scales along with scalper screens. In addition, it operates a 10-strong fleet of tipper and articulated trucks which are regularly maintained and serviced in-house. The tippers are used for a variety of applications, including the transportation of material excavated from both hazardous and non-hazardous sites and supplying hardcore filling for site development and road works.
With 3 low loaders of their own, they can get a lot of plant on and off sites fast to meet customer deadlines.
Hinch Plant operates a fleet of 25 and 30-tonne dump trucks which include Volvo D, E and G models, some of which have flotation tyres and full tailgates. With these capabilities, the contractor can undertake large site excavations with greater ease and efficiency.
Hinch Plant also operates a large range of excavators with a variety of attachments and ranging in size from 3 to 30 tonnes, including swamp, long-reach, rubber tyre, rubber track, zero-swing and Knuckle boom excavators. The excavators are a mix of Caterpillar, Hitachi, Doosan, Komatsu, Case and Eurocomach. They can be fitted with attachments such as hydraulic grabs, rock breakers, tilting buckets, tree shears and mulchers.
Hinch Plant operate as PSCS for Clients and offers a wide range of civil contracting services, including civil groundworks, earthmoving, installation of underground services, road works, drainage, forest road construction, muck shifting and site development. It is subcontracted by local authorities, Construction companies, Civil and Utility contractors and Directly for the client and developers in the midlands area. Experienced in Quarry and Gravel pit stripping of over burden as well as final restoration on completion.
The Co. Laois-based firm is a producer and supplier of crushed stone, gravel filling, drainage pebble and Clause 804. The company can also move its crusher to various sites for processing of rock and gravel excavated onsite and specialises in the recycling of demolition material into hardcore filling.
Hinch Plant is permitted to collect construction and demolition waste materials and dispose this to their own waste facilities in Portarlington, Geashill and Tullamore. Access to three company-owned waste sites allows them the capacity to undertake site clearance jobs other contractors may not be able to undertake. Hinch Plant holds current waste collection permits for hazardous and non-hazardous waste. It also has its own vacuum / road sweepers that keep all access routes clean and in line with waste permit regulations.
Hinch Plant has carried out numerous groundworks projects down the years and currently has 18 staff onsite in Ballymahon, Co. Longford where the new Center Parcs Longford Forest Holiday Village is being developed. Roadbridge Civil Engineering & Building Contractors enlisted its services after winning the contract for infrastructural work. Following the contract for enabling works for Bennett Construction.
The infrastructure contract consists of the earthworks, road and path networks, utilities, drainage system, the man-made lake and building platforms. Center Parcs will include up to 500 lodges, designed with families and the environment in mind, more than 100 indoor and outdoor activities, a spa, a range of restaurants and cafes, and a ‘subtropical swimming paradise’ with water rides and fun for all ages. The forest holiday village is due to open next summer and will employ up to 1,000 full-time staff.
“It’s a prestigious contract to be involved with. We started in March 2017 clearing the roadways, carparks, new entrance roads and drainage, and have stayed on prepping the areas around the lodges. There was an awful lot of earthmoving involved in the early months,” Trevor says.
Here’s to the next 50 years of Hinch Plant!
Hinch Plant
Townparks,
Mountmellick,
Co. Laois.
Telephone: +353 (0)57 8624201
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, November 2018, Vol 4 No 10
