Some of the more than 50 Yanmar CE EMEA machines currently sitting in Devon-based D&H Plant’s rental yard are 15 years old – and still as reliable as the day they arrived, explains co-owner Mark Disney.

Looking for a mini-excavator or tracked carrier that will give you bang for your buck and unparalleled reliability – year after year? According to Devon based and family-run rental specialist D&H Plant, Yanmar is the brand to turn to. D&H has been successfully renting Yanmar units to its varied customer base for over two decades – and isn’t about to change brands now, according to the company’s co-owner Mark Disney.

D&H began life as a small tool hire outlet in 1984, but quickly blossomed into a rental facility for larger equipment, setting up shop in the tranquil town of Cullompton in mid Devon where it remains to this day. The company’s relationship with Yanmar began 22 years ago, when Mark persuaded his – at first sceptical – father to purchase a new 5.13 tonne ViO55 mini excavator:

“I’ve always lived and breathed machines, as did my father. I’d heard lots of great things about Yanmar and knew that I wanted to integrate the units into our range – but my dad wasn’t so sure. One of our customers had a demo of the ViO55 excavator, so I sent dad to see it in action on-site – and the machine’s performance spoke for itself. The rest, as they say, is history.”

A generation of innovation

D&H Plant has since become a longstanding Yanmar customer, opening its doors to an impressive range of Yanmar machines that span entire generations of product models. Currently it has a rollcall of more than Yanmar units at its facility, including mini and midi excavators, track loaders and tracked carriers. Some of the oldest on the fleet are 15 years old and, according to Mark, just as reliable as they were when D&H first purchased them.

“We spend a lot of time carefully maintaining our machines to ensure they’re working to the highest standard possible for our customers. If you look after it properly, you’ll have no trouble at all getting 15+ years out of a Yanmar unit. They are built to last – I can say that hand on heart – and pay for themselves in the long-term.”

Rolling out the red carpet

The most recent addition to D&H’s range is the new ‘Premium Red’ painted ViO33-6 zero tail swing excavator, with an Operating Weight (OW) of 3,275kg, compact width of 1,550 mm, and low swing radius. The ViO33-6 is designed to bring peace of mind to areas where space is limited, and is suitable for various agriculture, landscaping, civil engineering and construction projects. Its versatility has made it a particular hit with D&H’s customer-base, given the wide variety of applications in the rental segment:

“Our customer’s projects are very varied: some need machines for farming maintenance, some for landscaping or gardening, and everything in-between. The versatility of the ViO33-6 is spot on, and it can be fitted with a wide range of different attachments to make it suited to the task at hand. Of course, you have the typical bucket attachment, but we have customers who also fit it with augers, breakers, tree shearers, different types of buckets, ripper teeth – you name it, the list goes on and on.”

Building with Y.O.U.

While much has changed for both Yanmar and D&H Plant since their relationship first began, Mark’s trust and loyalty towards the Yanmar brand remains undiminished. Much of this stems from Yanmar’s commitment to customer success and collaboration, he explains. This is the also key driving force behind the industry leader’s newly developed Yanmar Operators United Club (Y.O.U.) webapp – a specially developed space for equipment customers and operators across Europe to connect with Yanmar and one another as a community.

“We wouldn’t use anything else but Yanmar, and haven’t done so for many, many years”, smiles Mark. “The support we get from the brand is unparalleled and we’ve built an excellent relationship with its team. There are times where they come to us to ask us for our feedback, which is encouraging; it makes us feel like we’re valued. This is one of the key reasons we stick with the Yanmar brand – they’ve built our trust brick by brick.”