A relationship based on trust

A Bulgarian quarry is continuing to run efficiently thanks to the addition of two Hitachi Zaxis-6 excavators and ZW-6 wheel loaders to its expanding fleet of construction machinery. Persenk Invest Ltd bought the ZX350LC-6s and ZW310-6s after the confirmation of a significant new contract.

Reliable solutions

A Bulgarian quarry is continuing to run efficiently thanks to the addition of two Hitachi Zaxis-6 excavators and ZW-6 wheel loaders to its expanding fleet of construction machinery. Persenk Invest Ltd bought the ZX350LC-6s and ZW310-6s after the confirmation of a significant new contract.

Plovdiv is an ancient city (the second largest behind the capital, Sofia) that lies on the banks of the Maritsa River and is home to Persenk Invest. The company was formed in 2009 by father and son Georgi and Ivan Georgiev to manage the Kurtovo Konare quarry.

The site is perched on one of the seven hills around which Plovdiv was built. The quarry was first established in 1959. During the communist regime, the processed materials went to the national railways to be laid as track ballast. Then, after the change to the democratic Republic of Bulgaria in 1990, there was a period of 18 years when the site lay dormant.

At the start of its tenure in the quarry, Persenk Invest opted to work with rented machinery as the most cost-effective option in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. This was a useful exercise as Georgi and Ivan were able to test three different construction machinery brands before they decided to buy their first wheel loader and excavator in 2011.

“During this period, we decided that Hitachi was the only choice for us,” says Georgi. “Our preference was to have only one brand on site and strike up an excellent working relationship with the dealer. It’s about the whole package, and Hitachi and Z&M have exceeded our expectations and lived up to their slogan of ‘reliable solutions’.

“We are natural partners and this is not a normal customer/ supplier relationship. Since the first contact, we have enjoyed excellent relations and there has been a high level of trust built between us.

We started our business at the worst possible time, but Z&M worked with us and offered preferential terms on the machines that we bought – and we will never forget this!”

The rock at the upper levels of the site is blasted as and when required, although there are no explosions for two months (in April and May) due to the local birds’ egg-hatching season. One of the ZX350LC-6s moves the blasted materials from this precipice on to the quarry floor. The second ZX350LC-6 is lying in wait to load 3,500 tonnes of marble rock per day on to the primary crusher.

Smooth and stable

“The ZX350LC-6 is powerful and fast, as well as being easy to operate and enjoyable to work with,” says Dimitar Georgiev, who has been working with Persenk Invest for four years.

“It is smoother than the previous model, which means that I am not as tired after a long shift. The cab is also very comfortable and quiet – the best thing about this high-quality machine. It is perfect: stable, strong and well suited to the demands of a quarrying environment.”

The wheel loaders take over for the next part of the process – 3,500 tonnes of the crushed materials are moved every day into two piles by the first of the ZW310-6s. These are loaded periodically on to trucks that dump them into the feeding station for the secondary crushing and screening equipment.

The second ZW310-6 maintains numerous stockpiles and loads trucks in the stockyard with the finished products for onward transportation. “The ZW310-6 is very fast for moving between the stockpiles and even more productive than the previous model,” says operator Stoycho Guglev, who has also been with the company for four years.

“The joystick is effortless for steering, as well as being smooth to operate and easy to control the machine. Loading is straightforward thanks to the traction force associated with the LSD (limited slip differential). The most impressive feature is the comfort in the cab, with ample space and a lack of noise.”

Persenk Invest’s biggest customer, the Government’s national power station, is 160km away and other customer sites fall within a radius of 30km of the quarry. Between 45 and 70 trucks leave the quarry fully loaded twice every day, with an average of 3,000 tonnes sent to the power station daily.

The purchase of the new Hitachi models followed the confirmation of a three-year contract between Persenk Invest and the power station. Prior to that, the company had been supplying this customer via a third party.

“The marble materials delivered from our quarry to the power station are mixed with coal at a high temperature within the furnace,” says Ivan. “The result of this is that the emissions are less harmful to the environment.

“We have to deliver 2.5 million tonnes over the duration of the contract and we are currently supplying 3,000 tonnes per day. Our Hitachi machines and team of employees give us the capacity to increase productivity if required, but we are very happy to retain this flexibility and meet our customers’ demands.

“While the power station is now our largest customer, we will never stop supporting our other customers. We won’t forget them, because we’ve been working together from the beginning and we consider this market as the front end of our business.”

Confidence in Hitachi

The new contract has given Georgi and Ivan the confidence to invest in the machinery to do the job. As well as having high-quality equipment, it is also important for them to have good partners in the unlikely event of any technical issues.

“It’s about the whole package, and Hitachi and Z&M are reliable partners for our business,” explains Georgi. “This relationship is important to us and we will continue to use them for after-sales service when our machines are out of warranty.

“The response time from the first call to their arrival on site is always less than 1.5 hours, which makes life very difficult for salesmen of other construction equipment! After this level of investment, we don’t want to try another brand – but there’s no point anyway, because none of them can match Hitachi.”

Ivan also confirms the importance of fuel economy to Persenk Invest: “The fuel consumption of our new Hitachi machinery is excellent and helps us to significantly reduce our running costs.

“Both models are the optimum size for us, as they offer complete flexibility for our operations. As a result, we can deal with any fluctuations in demand – without the need to change the number of employees. At first, we thought they were excellent machines and now we don’t want to work with anything else other than Hitachi equipment.”