1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198 
T aynton limestone is favoured for its frost resistance and Costswold
Page 51
Page 52
Page 53
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
honey and buff colours.And Huntsmans Quarries has been extracting it from Naunton, near Stow-on-the-Wold, Glos since 1936.
The quarry"sJurassic limestone is a highquality aggregate, popular as walling stone, roofing slate and decorative stone; there's also plenty of demand for the sands, gravels and hardcore materials that are the by-products of the extraction process.
The advent of aggregate tax almost four years ago prompted Huntsmans to search for ways of offering added-value services to complement the 300.000 tonnes of material it extracts from Naunton each year.
"We can't compete with the large multinationals on prices, so we needed to offer an honest, added-value service for existing and potential customers," says Huntsmans Quarries MD Dave Glenn.
The tax 4_0.60 (ex-VAT) on each tonne of new material produced has had little impact on higher-cost/smaller-volume products."But the tax is virtually 50% of the cost of lowervalue aggregates." he adds."On products fetching 0-4 per tonne. we were forced to add £1,60 in tax, plus the VAT "There wasn't a lot we could do except pass the tax on, but it slowed the business a little," Glenn explains."The tax did give us the incentive to move into recycling to try and offer customers a means of getting rid of building waste, which we could clean, sort and reprocess into an alternative free of aggregate tax. Many customers were coming here to collect aggregates, so why not give them the opportunity to get rid of building waste too?"
But before moving into this area, the firm had to consolidate its existing operation: "We had a fleet of 6x4 and 8x4 tippers, which we sold on to another operator three years ago. They run mostly out of our quarry and are still in our livery, but this enabled us to generate cash and reinvest in the business." This temporary consolidation allowe, Huntsmans to diversify with a skip-hire recycling division, which has since been supplemented by a ready-mixed concre hatching plant.
The move into recycling
"We currently have about 40 skips—a mi four, six and eight-yard bins— which are managed using a Volvo FL6,"Cilenn exp "It's just to accept construction and dem waste, because if I can't recycle what we I have to pay to have it sent to landfill."
Material coming into the recycling div sorted into soils and rubbles, which are ti through various crushing and screening: to produce hardcore.top soils and inert t And the skips allow the firm to be mc flexible in product delivery. They can be to deliver aggregates or small volumes concrete for customers, who can then use the emptied skips to dispose of rubble and waste.
"We're not looking to be big in either skips or concrete, but the two elements go hand in hand with our quarry business and improve the range of products and serk•ices we can offer to customers," Glenn explains.
The personal touch After about 18 months of operation with both new divisions, business is proving to be steady but worthwhile:"About 90% of our business is carried out within a 25-mile radius of the quarry while the ready-mixed concrete deliveries are carried out within l 5 miles," he says.
The firm decided against using a national call centre,so it has been able to maintain personal contact with customers. 'Any of our customers can phone through to whoever they need to deal with,"saysGlenn."If they need to speak with the batching plant about a quote,collection or a concrete delivery, they can.1 here's no excuses or fobbing off."
Huntsmans supplies about 9,200e (12.000 cubic yards) of concrete a year and is on target to recycle about 25,000 tonnes of construction waste annually. It's a useful supplement to a quarrying business that processes about 2,000 tonnes of materials every day.
Getting the concrete to where it's needed is the domain of four Hymix barrel mixers.Three are 6m models, of which two are mounted on 6x4 Mercedes Atego chassis and one is carried on an older Volvo FL7 6x4.The fourth mixer truck,a 4m3 outfit for smaller deliveries, is based on a 4x2 1veco Eurocargo.
-Ifs ordinary Portland cement-based, hut quality assured and batched to within 1% on site," Glenn says."The quality assurance enables us to compete with the likes of Hansons and Tarm ac."
Mixers clock up about 50,000km per year and are expected to stay with the fleet for about five years. but they are assessed on a truck-by-truck basis and service life can be extended to as long as eight years. Glenn has not ruled out the possibility of getting back into running his own tippers: "Now that we're operating trucks again we could look at running our own tippers in the future. But if we did, they'd be steel-bodied muckaway models this time so we could also utilise them on the recycling division to help grow that side of the business."
Getting the Cotswold stone out of the ground is handled by two hydraulic excavators:a 60-tonne Komatsu PC600 with a ripper tine that claws away at the layered rock, and a 45-tonne Volvo EC460B to load the loosened materials into waiting dump trucks.
Let it rip "The ripper is an environmentally sensitive way of extracting stone," Glenn reports."The thump of a hydraulic hammer isn't acceptable for local residents. And it can smash too much of the stone we're trying to extract."
Too much damage and fragmentation can render the stone useless as a high-value roofing slate or walling stone—high quality handdressed Stonesfield Slate produced from this quarry can fetch upwards of £1,800 per tonne.
"When it can't be cut and dressed for slate it ends up going through the primary crusher and being turned into regular aggregates." he says."And that reduces its value considerably."
Thelirm also provides builders' merchants with palletised packs of decorative stones and bagged aggregates.
Huntsmans prides itself on looking after its plant and equipment.The trio of ageing Volvo A25C dump trucks with upwards of 17,000 hours on the clock are a good example: "Our operators have pride in what they're doing. OK, accidental damage can happen:but if something breaks, be it a seat or a window, it's put right almost immediately."
Energy costs are a major concern: "Red diesel has had a 22% hike in tax recently;white diesel keeps creeping up too,as do electricity costs. But it's no good moaning about the increasesit's how you deal with them."
Efficiency training
This philosophy is pushing the firm towards driver and operator training to maximise efficient fuel use. Eluntsmans is looking at government-backed training schemes for driver training with trucks and heavy plant.
"Some of this big kit can cost around lOp a minute to run when it's sat idling merrily away. Glenn points out.-We need to keep an eye on where we're inefficient and turn that around."
Hauliers arriving at the yard are dealt with promptly.Three loading shovels-a Volvo L120D, a Komatsu NVA380 and a Caterpillar 9660 -all have on-board weighing equipment so the trucks are loaded quickly and efficiently.
"The Cat is over-specced for us,"says Glenn. "It could make way for a smaller, more efficient wheeled loader, perhaps another Volvo LI20. These machines are only used for loading trucks. stockpiling and rehandling materials from the crushing and screening plants.
The loading shovels are also used to spread out stone on the quarry floor.
-ibis lets the stone walling gangs handselect the materials they need to dress and produce Cotswold dry stone wall materials," Glenn explains. 'it's a labour-intensive process, hut gives the quality and appearance needed that makes this area famous for its dry stone walls, building stone and roofing slate.
"And more importantly," Glenn smiles. "there's no aggregate tax to be applied to hand-dressed products.
• Contact: Huntsmans Quarries 01451 850 555