A landmark addition to AJ Grab Hire’s stunning fleet
15/02/2022
To mark the official 15th anniversary of the company’s inception, AJ Grab Hire added a striking new Scania G450 grab lorry to their magnificent fleet during the summer of 2021. Irish Trucker touched base with founder / proprietor Barry Nugent to discuss the head-turning new arrival and to get an update on day-to-day activities.
As one of the premier grab hire and site clearance companies operating in the capital and across the North East, AJ Grab Hire has assembled an eye-catching fleet of trucks, plant and machinery down through the years. Last summer, the County Monaghan headquartered family-run business bolstered their superb fleet with the acquisition from McElvaney Motors of a superb 15th-anniversary model Scania.
The beautiful, highly-spec’d new 212-reg G450 XT 8x4 comes with a contemporary finish and a host of extras including Palfinger crane, Thompson body and Kelsa lights. Suffice to say that the 15th grab truck in the 34-strong fleet is a real show stopper!
“It’s a fantastic truck and we are absolutely delighted with it,” confirms Castleblayney man Barry Nugent, who runs AJ Grab Hire alongside his wife Siobhan and son Joe. “This is our 15th year grabbing and we wanted to add a special truck to mark that anniversary. We pulled out all the stops with this one and it is done up to the last. Joe is driving it and he couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.”
As ever, AJ Grab Hire received superb customer service from renowned local Scania dealer McElvaney Motors. Ten of the 15 grab trucks in the fleet - which provide a nationwide service removing muck, demolition material, construction waste from both commercial and private sites as well as topsoil / landscaping and sand & gravel - are Scania, while the other five are Renault.
Due to a rigorous replenishment programme, the fleet is both fresh and immaculately-maintained, with new models added virtually every year. Barry owned and operated a fleet of tippers before going down the grab hire road and today he still runs tippers, artics and diggers providing keen site clearance, muck away, waste removal and disposal services. In total, AJ Grab Hire runs 34 trucks, which are predominantly Scania (alongside nine Renaults, two DAFs and two Volvos – the newest of which was purchased brand new from McDonnell Commercials in Monaghan last year).
With depots in Ashbourne, County Meath and Shantonagh, Castleblayney, AJ Grab Hire are fully-licensed, -insured and –certified and work predominantly for large utilities companies (including gas, ESB, water, broadband, sewage, etc.), which has become their specialist area of expertise.
From removing rubble from a private residence to largescale utilities projects, no job is ever deemed too big or too small for AJ Grab Hire, who invariable deliver high-quality, professional and efficient workmanship, their exceptional fleet of machinery and experienced, qualified and conscientious personnel combining to ensure a steady volume of repeat business.
Although they have completed projects nationwide, typically, AJ Grab Hire tend to be most active in Dublin, Louth, Monaghan, Cavan and up north as far as Belfast. Indeed, at the time of writing, they were in the middle of a nine-week water-pipe-replacement project in Belfast for major utilities service provider M&M Contractors, for whom they also carry out a significant amount of work in Dublin.
“We’re very busy at the moment. Our customers have got bigger and the jobs have got bigger,” Barry notes. “It’s all site work, mostly in utilities, and to provide the best possible service at all times you need good equipment and good people. I’m lucky to have a good team around me. A lot of lads have been here ten or twelve years and you can’t beat that bit of experience.”
There’s never a quiet moment at AJ Grab Hire, although the team did get something of an unwanted breather in the Spring of 2020 when public health restrictions brought many parts of the nation to a virtual standstill. “We were parked up for nine weeks during the first lockdown,” Barry reflects. “We didn’t turn a wheel and we fell behind with a lot of the work. But most people were in a similar situation and thankfully we have been very busy since so we can’t complain.”
With such high demand for their industry-leading services, is there scope to perhaps expand the business further in the coming months and years? “We could grow it theoretically but it’s very difficult to get the manpower to do that, so it’s more likely we’ll remain at this size for the time being at least.”
During the Covid-induced hiatus Barry and Joe availed of the opportunity to soup up a bullnose Scania as a show truck, which the latter brought over to display at Truckfest, Peterborough at the end of August. Truck shows have always been a big passion of the truck-loving father-and-son team at AJ Grab Hire and they are looking forward to the much-anticipated return of the local calendar of events, especially the biggest and best of them all – Full of the Pipe at Punchestown Racecourse, where they are regular visitors every year.
A stunning, painstakingly-maintained fleet is at the heart of the business and an inordinate amount of time, energy, passion and money are invested into guaranteeing that the AJ Grab Hire trucks both perform powerfully and look the part! “Everything we earn goes back into the business to make sure we have the equipment we need to continue providing our customers with a dependable service,” Barry confirms. “We don’t mind investing money back into it because we really enjoy what we are doing, so it’s never a problem. We’re happy to be doing this.”
No doubt AJ Grab Hire’s growing list of satisfied customers are equally pleased!
AJ Grab Hire,
Cornassonagh
Shantonagh
Castleblayney,
County Monaghan.
Tel: 042 9745734
Mobile: 087 256 3853
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.ajgrabhire.com
Published in Irish Trucker & Light Commercials magazine, December/January 2021, Vol 24 No 7
