Huws Gray was created as a one-stop shop for all building products and materials – from below ground drainage to bricks and blocks, doors, windows and roofing materials. The company prides itself on fast and efficient customer service. That means loading and unloading lorries quickly, and efficiently moving materials on-site – activities that require a dependable, well-maintained forklift truck fleet.

“Our business offers a huge diversity of goods and materials,” said Mike Cholmondley, Transport Manager at Huws Gray. “Along with all of our trading branches, we have our own bagging plant, wood mill, roofing truss plant, kitchen and bathroom showrooms, seven civil centres and specialist brick sites.”

“It’s heavy work keeping materials and products flowing through these facilities, six days a week, so we need a strong, robust ‘work-horse’ that we know we can rely on.”

From the beginning, Huws Gray has used Doosan diesel counterbalance forklift trucks and over the years has steadily expanded its fleet to 148 trucks across its network – all supplied through a long-established relationship with Gwynedd Forklifts, Doosan’s local dealer.

“Servicing and maintenance of our entire fleet is taken care of by Gwynedd Forklifts under a long-standing service contract. The backup and support we’ve had from them over the years has been excellent and I can’t fault them,” said Mr Cholmondley.

He continued: “At the beginning of the year we put together a detailed schedule for service and inspections across all the sites and they follow that through like clockwork. They’re really fast at responding to any callout too.”

As well as servicing the truck fleet, the builders’ merchant recently placed an order for 25 new Doosan D30 diesel powered counterbalance trucks, which will be delivered over the next few months.

All the trucks supplied are 3.0 tonne capacity and are Doosan’s standard ‘feature-rich’ model - which includes the lift truck maker’s industry leading oil-cooled disc brake system.
“We like the simple, no-nonsense design and construction of the Doosan truck – no unnecessarily complex electronics that can go wrong.”
Manufactured as completely sealed units the system is
protected against outside elements, such as water, dust,
dirt, shrink wrap and metal banding - ensuring top-rate
braking performance, for enhanced safety and increased
productivity.

This low-maintenance, heavy-duty braking system
provides increased uptime and reduced running costs
when compared with conventional shoe or drum brakes.
“The backup and support we’ve had from
them over the years has been excellent and I
can’t fault them.”

Along with the robust design and Doosan’s high specification
as standard, the trucks supplied to Huws Gray have just a
couple of added extras - front and overhead screen, and
a triplex mast for easy access to warehouse sheds and
storage containers.

Huws Gray likes a standardised truck so that flexibility
can be maintained across the branch network. Trucks can
easily be moved between depots, should the need arise.
The company also has four Telehandlers from Bobcat –
another Doosan brand – used for loading aggregates.

Mike Cholomondly says, “We like the simple, no-nonsense
design and construction of the Doosan truck – no
unnecessarily complex electronics that can go wrong. It’s
really well suited to the builders’ yard environment and has
large drive wheels that are great for any uneven surfaces.”

He concludes: “Supporting our customers is our primary
focus and having a tough, robust and reliable truck that
can stand the pace of a busy builders merchants’ yard,
enables us to live-up to that challenge.”