Back in the 1980s Hewden Stuart was the daddy in the plant hire game, culminating in a knighthood for co-founder Matthew Goodwin – plant hire’s first, and so far only, knight. Growth continued under Sandy Findlay in the 1990s. Things started to change however, after Finning, the Canadian company with the UK Caterpillar dealership, decided to diversify from distribution into rental. Finning paid £322m cash for Hewden Stuart in 2001, seeing the hire company as a conduit for putting more Cat machines into the UK market place. Many of the old guard who had helped to build up Hewden moved on, or were moved on, and the inventory began to change too.

Nine years later, after more tinkering than Claudio Ranieri ever did at Chelsea, and worn down by losses, Finning decided to get out. It sold Hewden to venture capitalists Sun European Partners for £110m, booking a £70m loss on the deal. Sir Matthew Goodwin died last year, in October, aged 83. In his retirement, he had observed from a distance Hewden’s decline and had been angry (so it has been written) about what he saw as its mismanagement in later years.

The E25 (2.57 tonnes) is part of the new E-generation of Bobcat compact excavators introduced over the last three years, ranging from the E10 up to the E80. Maximum digging depth of the E25 is 2582mm, with a maximum reach at ground level of 4553mm and a maximum dump height of 3057mm.

Applications for the new DX225LC-3 excavator are diverse, from clearing land, site clearance, excavating for foundations and trenching for utilities to earthmoving and maintenance work for highway, civil engineering and general construction projects.

The new DX225LC-3 excavator offers a number of improvement in performance compared to the previous generation machine:

An incredible mile stone, which has taken the manufacture 67 years to achieve. (A third of these machines have been produced in just the last six years.) As a reminder of the companies achievement, behind the glass in the reception area at JCB’s HQ is the actual one millionth machine, a 22 tonne JS220 tracked excavator decked out in silver… Looks great! Very much looking forward to seeing it next month.

Offering one of their top of the range L105 wheeled loaders.

At this year China Open at Tianjin Binhai Lake Golf Club, the first pro to ace the 13th, will win the Volvo L105.