Liebherr to supply Coleman & Company with a "Swiss Army Knife" of six large demolition specification excavators for the Didcot A power station project.

Liebherr Great Britain are proud to announce the signing of a contract to supply Coleman & Company, one of the largest demolition companies in the UK with six large demolition specification excavators.

Birmingham based demolition contractors Coleman & Company have recently commenced a three year project to undertake the demolition of the redundant Didcot “A” Power Station in Didcot, Oxfordshire. The project involves the demolition of a wide variety of structures ranging from single storey office blocks through to the main plant to include the boilers, turbine hall, six cooling towers and a 200m high chimney.

While already owning a large fleet of their own specialist demolition equipment, Didcot Power Station presented Coleman with the opportunity to look at its fleet not only for this project but also other opportunities in the industrial sector in the future. Coleman carefully assessed the plant requirements to deliver such a large industrial project, in turn these formed the basis of a performance specification for the specialist plant manufacturers to use in building up their detailed proposals.

The family owned concern has over 50 years in the demolition industry and have operated high quality equipment from many manufacturers in that time. Didcot Power Station has a wide and varied number of different structures some of which are extremely heavy duty in terms of construction. This meant they required new equipment to be able to perform the variety of tasks the job demanded. The Coleman project management team drew up their initial requirements for the new equipment in September 2013 and after talking to four manufacturers, entered into more detailed discussions in April 2014 with another family owned company, Liebherr.

Managing Director Mark Coleman commented, “We run a fairly mixed fleet of demolition specified excavators across four recognised brands including Liebherr. But the only manufacturer we talked to that were able to meet ALL our detailed demands were Liebherr. We have enjoyed a very good working relationship with Liebherr going back a number of years and see them as a leader in the production of bespoke demolition equipment.”

The detailed specification drawn up by Coleman & Company for the specialist equipment meant that Liebherr needed to design a variety of specialist demolition rigs with interchangeability across the six machines. Each machine has an arsenal of different options available, with interchangeability and versatility being key to the unique offering that will shortly be available to the industrial market. Liebherr ensured that the original customer specifications were not only met but in most cases exceeded. “Liebherr has been able to design a variety of boom configurations for Coleman’s requirements to include a variety of different extensions and high reach options which will enable them to obtain the maximum availability out of the new fleet.” explained Liebherr’s Darren Bennet. “We and Coleman believe that between us we have developed a unique “Swiss Army Knife” range of demolition excavators.”

The deal comprises of three 56 tonne R956 excavators, two 80 tonne R954CVH HDW high reach excavators and a special 120 tonne R974C all of which have been prepared especially for working in the industrial demolition sector. “We liked the fact that the Liebherr machines are fully designed and constructed in-house” explained Mr Coleman “This means they are fully CE certified and should we have any issues with them, we have a single point of contact with no other outside influence.”

As part of the deal, Liebherr will undertake specific product training with Coleman’s operators to ensure the company get the most out of their substantial investment. The new equipment will leave the Liebherr Colmar factory fully equipped with new work tools supplied by ECY Haulmark with the flow rates for the specific attachments set up and tested in the factory ensuring the machines are ready for work as soon as they reach the project.

The six machines will be delivered throughout 2014 with the first R956 being displayed on the Liebherr stand at the Hillhead Exhibition and going to work immediately afterwards at Didcot A.

Associated Businesses

  • Liebherr-Great Britain Limited and Liebherr-Ireland are subsidiaries of Liebherr-International AG, providing national sales and after-sales product support for the Group's complete range of construction equipment throughout the UK and ...