Hyundai Construction Equipment Europe has recently announced that the current South East England dealer Ernest Doe & Sons has extended their territory with the addition of West Sussex, Hampshire and Isle of Wight.
Ernest Doe is the longest serving Hyundai dealer in the UK and have been supplying the full-line of Hyundai equipment to their customers since 1991.
The territory extension will offer local Hyundai customers enhanced sales, service and parts coverage through Ernest Doe’s extensive network of outlets.
Expanding into new territories
Hyundai approached Ernest Doe when Selwood announced their plans to move away from machinery sales to solely rental. Ernest Doe & Sons Sales Director, Graham Parker spoke about the expansion and what this means for the company moving forward. “When we were contacted by Hyundai we saw it was an opportunity for us to expand our area – we have an existing branch of Ernest Doe in West Sussex, therefore it was a natural progression for us to grow the business in that area.
However, Hampshire was brand new to us and in the short time we have been in the area we have had very good feedback from existing Hyundai customers – Scott Hamilton who is our sales manager at the West Sussex dealership – has been in contact with many of them and we have already conducted service work and part sales.”
Graham added, “We are currently looking to recruit additional service technicians for the new areas. In relation to parts we have introduced a dedicated direct construction parts ‘hotline’ which comes straight into our head office at Ulting, Essex. We have an excellent parts team here with years of experience who know every nut and bolt of a Hyundai!”
Business is booming!
“We are always busy!” said Graham “However, it’s a very odd year – everyone is nervous about what’s going to happen next year with Brexit looming – but the business is still performing very well, and people are still buying.
We are in a fortunate situation that all areas of our business are up! Groundcare, agricultural and construction are all way up on last year and we are in a year that all three areas are booming – I can’t recall in going back 30-years that this has been the case. It’s excellent news that people want to deal with us and we are proud of our solid reputation and the good relationship we have with our customers.”
In total Ernest Doe have 530 staff members spread across 19 branches nationwide and the company plans to continue with its expansion. Graham reported, “We are always looking at growing the business – our intention is to grow as and when we can and are continually looking at new projects.”
The Hyundai brand
In terms of Hyundai machines, the new HX130 is particularly favoured by Ernest Doe and the company have sold quite a number of these machines since their arrival in the UK in May of this year. Graham said, “The HX130 is really making its mark! This machine has a non- emissionised engine – therefore no Adblue is required. It’s also got a really good amount of power in ratio to its weight – it really is making an impact! I think that next year as more and more people get to hear about the HX130 we will sell a lot more of them – it really is a cracking machine! I have only heard glowing reports from the owners of the machines we have out on the ground.”
“The Hyundai product is fantastic and in my opinion it’s as good as anything else out there on the market and better than a lot – which is a bold statement but one I believe is absolutely true!” added Graham. “From where we were 30-years ago to where we are now with Hyundai I really can’t talk highly enough about them – the reliability, the features – they really are a class machine.
When you see customers buying them as repeat business having bought their first one with some trepidation and then coming back for more without even considering the competition – you know it’s a good brand. It’s then a few years down the line you will see them running an entire fleet of Hyundai’s in excess of 20-machines – our customer E.Corr is testament to this – the company run an entire fleet of Hyundai machines and are regularly buying more! A lot of our sales are from word of mouth and sales based on our reputation. We have come a very long way in a relatively short period of time.”
Graham concluded, “We have also sold a few of the bigger machines this year – several 30tonne (HX300) machines and 38tonne machines – another order for an HX380 came in this morning! We are not traditionally a dealer that sells the larger machines, as in this area we are in house-building territory, which requires the smaller machines – the 8tonne and 14tonne sector. But it’s good to sell some of the Hyundai heavy line. We are very much looking forward to growing our business and the Hyundai brand in the new areas and offering the full line of machines to new and existing customers.”
