North East family-owned employer The Banks Group is launching a new service business aimed at sharing the expertise within its plant maintenance and management team with clients across northern England.
The County Durham-headquartered firm is looking to build on more than 40 years’ experience of owning, maintaining and managing a diverse fleet of heavy plant, construction and ancillary equipment via its new Banks Plant Solutions brand.
Banks’ highly-skilled, 33-strong plant and equipment maintenance team has extensive experience of maintaining, servicing and repairing original machinery from manufacturers including Caterpillar, Komatsu, Volvo and JCB, and works on equipment ranging in size from small ancillary vehicles right up to 500 tonne hydraulic excavators.
Additional resources and personnel are being added to the Plant Solutions team to support the launch of the new business, which will initially focus on building its operations across North East England, Cumbria and North Yorkshire.
Key target markets for contract work including infrastructure, demolition, waste & recycling, forestry, quarrying and the plant hire industry.
Stephen Banks, business development manager at the Banks Group, says: “Our practical experience of both operating and maintaining equipment of all sizes gives us a clear insight into the needs of both sides of the business, and the knowledge that our team can offer is second to none.
“Businesses operating in our target markets need to know that their plant equipment will be serviced for the minimum possible amount of time, to minimise “down time”. The preventative maintenance programmes we offer and implement will ensure this is the case.
“Our aim is to initially focus on parts of the country where we already have an operational presence, but there’s every opportunity to extend the services we’re providing nationwide in time.”
Founded in 1976 in County Durham, The Banks Group began life operating surface mines under licence from the National Coal Board, but has diversified over its lifetime into a range of other markets including commercial and residential property, waste management and renewable energy, and now employs over 300 people.
It is also thought to be unique in having used revenues from coal mining operations to drive its successful diversification into the onshore wind sector over the last 15 years.
Banks Renewables is now one of the UK’s leading independent owner/operators, and by the end of 2019, will have an operating portfolio of 11 onshore wind farms with a total production capacity of 224MW.
Gavin Styles, executive director at The Banks Group, adds: “Our history is one of successful diversification into a range of new markets wherever opportunities have arisen and setting up Banks Plant Solutions is the latest stage of this continuing evolution.
“We operate in a highly-regulated and environmentally-sensitive industry and have developed world-leading technologies and solutions to meet many of the challenges we’ve faced through applying the sort of innovative thinking that we’re now offering to clients.
“We’ve been creating high skilled and high paid employment opportunities in North East England and beyond for more than four decades now, and are continuing to look for innovative ways to use our team’s knowledge and expertise in new markets.”
