Walking into the headquarters of Ditch Witch in Swansea, you can’t help but be impressed by the scale and quality of their UK and Ireland operation. Chris and Mike’s attention to detail is etched all over the 10,000 square foot main building, which incorporates a showroom, state-of-the-art training centre, boardroom, and offices. If that’s not enough, this hugely impressive facility also includes a purpose-built demonstration area, a 5,000 square foot HDD tooling building, a workshop with fully equipped welding and fabrication area, and a parts and service counter.
Supporting the company’s HQ is a 10,000 square foot facility in the Midlands, which also boasts a workshop, warehousing, parts and service counter, and training facilities. Ideally placed just a mile from the M1, the site plays a key role in the company’s ability to provide rapid parts and support to customers across the country.
Ditch Witch UK and Ireland continue to expand their footprint with an increased presence across the island of Ireland. This ensures contractors in both the North and Republic can now access dedicated sales, service, and parts support locally.
Chris and Mike’s willingness to invest in sites that enable them to provide exacting service levels and, at the same time, create an outstanding working environment for their employees, has played a big part in the sustained growth of the business, which has captured a substantial proportion of the UK HDD market.
This sense of responsibility is reflected by Mike, who says, “This place is like one big family. We are so fortunate to have such a committed team; they spend a lot of time here, and we want to provide them with the best possible environment.”
Family is and always has been a pillar of the Ditch Witch business. The company was founded by Mike and Chris grandad, Dave Holloway, in the early 1980s. Dave was a committed innovator, having designed a number of groundbreaking products, including the ‘Beacon Buddy’. Both men rightly continue to hold him in the highest regard. From talking to either, there is little doubt that his memory is perfectly preserved in their desire to continue to innovate and solve problems for their customers.
These values and work ethic see Ditch Witch UK and Ireland amongst the top 5 Ditch Witch international dealers.
The desire to innovate and help customers solve their problems is a passion that still runs deep in the Ditch Witch business and extends far beyond the technical development of the equipment, which is so key to maintaining the company’s market-leading position.
Talking to Mike and Chris, it’s clear they recognise that the ability to provide customers with a reliable, easy-to-operate machine, with the right technical specification for the job, is only part of their role. They are also fully committed to ensuring their customers can optimise the capability of their equipment’s efficiency on the job site, helping to reduce costs and eliminate costly delays.
This desire to educate customers and ensure they have the right solution is evident well before a machine is even sold. Forming part of the Swansea facility’s expansive demonstration area is a purpose-built road, built to the Standards for Highways specification. This has been used for numerous customer demonstration and training exercises, including a recent event attended by over 100 representatives from the fibre industry, who got to see how Ditch Witch’s drills, ploughs and trenchers can minimise the impact and increase the speed of fibre delivery to households in the UK and Ireland.
The value the team place on training is something that really strikes you from the time you come on site.
Supporting the outside demonstration area is a state-of-the-art training room with an HDD simulator, which we were lucky enough to be able to try and which provides an incredibly life-like experience for operators without the challenges and operational impact of learning something for the first time on site. Chris and Mike explain that ‘training on site is great, but the reality is that you end up focusing on that particular job’. By bringing customers to their training facility, they can help them understand the full capability of the machine across a range of job types and ground conditions (customers can now benefit even further from the expertise of drilling fluid expert Dave Bell, who has now returned to the company where it all began for him just 33 years ago!).
Continued investment in both the Swansea and Midlands sites has also ensured that customers requiring any parts, tools, or consumables can be serviced as soon as possible. There is currently several million £ worth of parts in stock, the majority of which can be shipped to customers or engineers the next day. The company’s team of field engineers is also continuing to increase, located across the UK and Ireland. This availability of parts and resources plays a vital role in helping to minimise downtime and costly delays on site.
As the conversation shifts to the company’s plans for the future, both Mike and Chris agree that the real opportunity lies in extending beyond the provision of equipment for a dedicated task and in the ability to ‘own the job site’. This will see the development of increasingly ‘smart machines’ and intelligent utility mapping equipment. These detailed images of the job site and increased levels of automation will enable machines to work around any underground utilities and optimise their performance for the specific conditions and work being undertaken.
As we discuss specific markets, Mike and Chris are quick to recognise the work that is needed across all the UK and Ireland’s underground utilities networks. In terms of the water industry, Ofwat’s final determination of AMP8 at £104 billion will see approximately £12 billion earmarked for ‘Protecting our water and wastewater system’ which includes cutting leakage and replacing water mains. With increased awareness of the social, environmental, and financial benefits of trenchless solutions in replacing aging and deteriorated water and wastewater pipelines, the demand for efficient, proven equipment looks like it can only increase.
We also discuss the opportunity created by the renewable energy market and the need for landfall cabling for offshore wind farms. This work requires larger maxi rigs to bring cables to shore, then smaller rigs to bring it to the substation. This growth has seen the company put into service seven AT120’s over the last 18 months.
Whilst work in the fibre market has been slightly ‘stop start’, Mike and Chris also recognise the potential that programmes such as R100 in Scotland continue to create opportunities, with one of the private networks having already running 14 drills.
“The real opportunity is to own the job site, developing smart machines and intelligent mapping that optimise performance and avoid costly delays” -Chris Holloway
There are also plans to support a number of contractors with training, both on site and at the facility in Swansea, to help them ensure they procure the right equipment solution and are able to optimise its operation.
As we talk more broadly about how the sector can increase the use of trenchless technologies, training and education are once again a key theme, particularly in relation to the need for more and better trained HDD operators to meet demand. It is clear that Ditch Witch are committed to leading on ensuring that the HDD sector has the skills and resources it needs for the future. As part of the conversation, we discuss the need for better engagement with the education sector and the potential for a relevant ‘ticket’ which recognises certain levels of knowledge and ability to further improve confidence.
Mike and Chris also make the point that the continued education of contractors is also vital and that they continue to see companies that already have trenchless capability defaulting to open-cut and other techniques simply due to a lack of awareness.
It was fascinating to be able to spend a day with the Ditch Witch team and learn more about their UK and Ireland operation and plans for the future. Their willingness to look ahead and invest will, I believe, see them ideally placed to capitalise on future investment in our underground networks. I look forward to catching up with them again soon.
