EASY DOES IT

What can be described as a revolution in the attachments industry that began in Australasia more than 20 years ago is now beginning to make an impact in the UK and Ireland. Attach2 has already transformed the attachments market ‘down under’ supplying couplers and grabs to an ever expanding customer base.

The business was set up by Joe Hart who was facing significant delays in acquiring new attachments for his hire fleet. With deliveries taking weeks, and sometimes months, it was having a negative impact on his cash flow – and when they did arrive he was frustrated by the often necessary modifications needed to make them properly fit the machines.

Another core problem was the fact the couplers he was buying in had a lot of moving parts so they often jammed or broke. With more things that could go wrong, Joe was sending out technicians on to customer worksites to repair or replace parts on the couplers. It was all very time consuming and costly.

Those couplers were also more complex, frustrating hire customers who needed to figure out how to use them to best effect – and changing attachments was taking longer than it should, resulting in additional phone calls and more customer training. Joe says all of that resulted in a bad customer experience.

Motivated by these challenges, Joe decided to take control of the situation. He began creating attachments for his own hire fleet and saw this as an opportunity to address a market gap. By holding stock of these attachments, he could immediately dispatch them to his customers.

Built to satisfy what is a tough rental market, Attach2 has become the ‘go to’ choice for contractors looking for a hitch that makes life on the jobsite that much easier.

While Europe and the USA are in the company’s sights, the first step in Attach2’s expansion outside Australasia took place a few months ago when it opened up for business in Hampshire in the south east of England from where it will serve customers throughout the UK and Ireland.

The man behind that venture is Garry Critchley, who has worked in the supply end of the construction industry for 25 years. He has a passion founded on understanding the needs of the contractor and the plant hirer and is rapidly building a motivated team focussed on delivering a great quality product, supported by a world class customer service.

SIMPLE, QUICK & EASY

“We believe when operators are making a significant investment they deserve to have a seamless experience to go with it. From order and delivery to service and support, we go the distance to make their experience as easy as possible, every step of the way.”

With its own state of the art manufacturing facilities in India, Attach2’s key motto is 'Making It Easy' – from dealing with the company, getting support from the company and using the company’s range of products.“We're all about Making It Easy, with a simple, quick and easy coupling system,” says Garry.

“While it is early days, since opening here in the UK we have had some significant orders. People like the simplicity of the product, which has been truly proven in Australia and New Zealand, in some of the harshest conditions on the planet over the past two decades.”

QUALITY PRODUCT RANGE

Fully compliant to ISO13031 standards, the product range includes the Sure-Grip Coupler, a no-nonsense coupler designed with minimal moving parts to maximise uptime of the machine and to allow an operator to get on with his job with no hassles. Fabricated from milled high-wear steel, Attach2's Sure-Grip Coupler is faster, safer and stronger. It is a best in class coupler system that locks and holds attachments fast, but also in just a single step ensuring ease of use without sacrificing safety.

The company’s Ram-Tilt Coupler, which utilises the best in class Sure-Grip coupler base, is a durable easy-to-use and cost effective tilt coupler, allowing an operator to get more from his machine. Its unique twin cylinder design draws from Attach2’s extensive experience in cylinder tilting technology to achieve one of the lowest heights in the twin-cylinder quick hitch category. It is more cost effective and simpler compared to its more sophisticated brother – the Heli-Tilt.

Regarded as the pinnacle of tilting couplers – giving the full range of movement (up to 180 degrees each way in tilting motion), the Heli-Tilt has a very narrow design that will allow operators in all range of applications to do their work to the best.

Again, the Heli-Tilt coupler also utilises the Sure-Grip coupler base for fast and safe attachment coupling. Built for performance, the Heli-Tilt boasts excellent break-out force figures across the model range, reducing power losses thanks to its low pin to pin height, while the manufactured helical motor provides excellent torque to tilt any connected attachment.

While there are many benefits to using a tilt rotator, it is fair to say that both the Heli-Tilt and Ram-Tilt couplers represent a great alternative to tilt rotators as they can offer customers 70% of the functionality while being a lot more cost effective and more hardy. Attach2 has already supplied a number of Heli-Tilt and Ram-Tilt couplers to operators who previously used tilt rotators.

The Attach2 range also includes the Mini-Tilt Coupler which is the ideal coupler for mini machines – a very cost effective option with draw pin coupler base and giving 70 degrees of total tilt on all attachments, eliminating the need to remove hoses when changing attachments. The Mini-Tilt is already gaining a devout end user following in the UK which is piquing interest with plant hire companies looking for something different to add value to their mini-digger rental offering.

Meanwhile, Attach2’s grabs are designed to improve operator efficiency and again to get more done every day. The Multi Grab Bucket, for example, is built with a very heavy duty construction, giving operators amazing capabilities and is perfect for many projects from heavy duty demolition work through to precision rock placement, rock wall building and forestry/tree work.

BEST SERVICE & SUPPORT

“We have established a team of product experts who are always on call to support fitting teams across the country, and with orders increasingly coming through daily, we are continuing to build up our stocks to ensure a high level of availability from our 20,000 sq ft warehouse, while customers can also be assured of the best in service and support,” says Garry, who adds that the company has provided an online portal and an interactive parts manual for customers and fitters soon to be launched in the UK; you can follow updates on social media platforms like Facebook and Linkedin, or subscribe to the company’s newsletter.

The Attach2 range of couplers and grabs were officially launched and demonstrated at the most recent Hillhead Exhibition where they were fitted to six tonne and 14 tonne machines, and this is being followed up by a series of ‘Dig Days’ to enable potential customers to experience firsthand just what the products can offer. One of the events will be staged at the company’s Hampshire base where they have a demonstration 3.5 acre site and several other sites have been identified in Birmingham and in Newcastle.

“Once people actually see the products working in a real life setting, they will discover our couplers and grabs are very robust, incredibly well designed and easy to fit. If you listen to our customer testimonials you will hear that people have to try this hitch and grab combo to understand what it can do. We believe they will quickly come to appreciate the high quality and durability of our competitively priced attachments, which all come with a three year warranty,” says Garry.