Operating from Augharue, Bilboa, Co Carlow, Hilltop Quarries Ltd specialises in crushing and screening services all across both Ireland and the UK. Building Ireland caught up with Managing Director David Condell recently to learn all about this family-run company – from its origins to the current state of business today.
Set-up by David Condell in 2005, Hilltop Quarries Ltd has enjoyed a steady rise over the past 18 years to the point where it now has the capability of crushing a big quantity of tons per hour using its specialised machinery.
The company currently employs 15 full time staff from its base in Augharue, Bilboa, Carlow and sees itself as being very much a family business, with David’s wife Orla Condell the company’s secretary, which delivers a personal touch to its service.
Hilltop Quarries Ltd is a business which has grown year on year since its inception and, the way they look at it in Augharue, is that no job is too big or small for them.
Building Ireland touched base with David Condell during the summer to discuss the services his business provides for clients and its overall hopes and ambitions for the future ahead.
“We provide a contracting crushing service, so we have four different outlets of machinery working all of the time between primary, secondary and tertiary crushing,” the company’s Managing Director outlined.
“We’re making chips for the aggregate market all the time; ie the concrete plants and the asheville
plants, and general aggregates like 804s and stuff like that in some applications.
“We also specialise in mobile washing, so have a mobile wash plant and we do a lot of washing as
well.”
As well as primary and secondary crushing and tertiary crushing, Hilltop Quarries Ltd also provides rock breaking services, equipment and hire up to 80-tonne excavators.
Business is good these days and the plan for David and Orla and the rest of the team in Augharue is to keep things that way right through to next year.
The end of 2022 saw David purchasing his own quarry and, as he puts it himself: “The general
contracting side of things is steady right now.
“It’s not out the door or anything. It’s just at a point now where it’s running along just lovely.”
Indeed, things have come a long way in these past 18 years for Hilltop Quarries Ltd.
When David first set-up the business, he did so having had an agricultural background in his youth which, as he himself pointed, really developed his worth ethic.
That same work ethic has carried through and been key since ‘Day One’ in growing the company into what it is today – one of the leaders when it comes to crushing and screening services in the country’s south east.
“My own background is in farming. I’ve a Farm Master’s degree and I studied in Maynooth for that,”
he explained.
“I would’ve grown up on a dairy farm milking 130 cows and we were raring about 500 head of dry stock, from calf to beef
“I’d come from an agricultural background as in silage making and that, so I would have had a fairly busy childhood myself.”
His love for machinery never faded either and today Hilltop Quarries Ltd operates with equipment that is both second to none and superbly maintained all year round.
One of the most recent purchases has been a new Scania 770s 8×4
The company has also added a new 530 Excavator, an EC 750 and has a Komatsu PC360 excavator, wa475 komatsu shovel and a Metso 1213S crusher in its impressive fleet to name a just few.
It’s all necessary for Hilltop Quarries Ltd to continually provide its services in the most efficient and
excellent manner for clients.
“All of my equipment here is always kept new and tidy all the time,” David explained.
“We excel in extremely clean and tidy work here. There’s no messing or anything like that – everything is kept in pristine condition – and we always aim to do a top class job and that’s what we pride ourselves in.”
Pride in its work has been one of the key ingredients to the success of Hilltop Quarries Ltd to date, and you can be sure that approach will be continually taken going forward.
Looking at the months ahead for the business, David is eager for things to continue in exactly the same manner.
Hilltop Quarries Ltd Augharue,
Bilboa, Carlow.
Mobile: 087 360 9726
Email: [email protected]
Web: hilltopquarries.com
This article was published in Building Ireland Magazine, October 2023, Vol 9 No 10
