Earthmoving News

BACKHOE LEGACY FOR JCB CUSTOMER

In the 1970s, Victorian company BJB Excavations was established by three mates and one JCB backhoe loader. Forty years later, JCB equipment is still at the heart of the business forged by the trio.

The mates were Jozef Boucher, Anton Jaspers and Colin Berry and the first machine they purchased as BJB Excavations was a JCB 3C backhoe loader, which they named Lily 1 after Jozef’s wife.

Anton and Colin eventually moved on to new ventures, with Colin going on to start a business that was bought by the Downer Group in 2010.

BJB Excavations continues today, headed by Jozef’s son-in-law Eric Bast after Jozef passed away.

BJB Excavations focuses on water main renewal and trenching across Melbourne. Eric recently purchased their sixth JCB backhoe loader, a 3CX, aptly named Lily 6.

“All our JCB backhoes are traditionally named Lily. It’s how Jozef started it and how we want to continue it,” Eric says.

He says the reason the three friends started out with a JCB is the same reason he still chooses them today.

“It was durable and efficient and they still are to this day, which is why we continue to buy them. They provide us with the reliability we need within our works, which in turn allows us to provide our customers with a reliable service they can trust.

“The backhoes in particular give me peace of mind with exceptional hydraulic hose routing on the boom. We work under a lot of trees and I know with this design, the hoses won’t tear. The design on the backhoes is second to none, and the DieselMAX engine is efficient and clean. They aren’t the biggest backhoe selling brand in the world for nothing!”

Over the years of working with BJB, Eric says he has seen a lot of advances and innovations in backhoe technology, making operating them a lot easier and more efficient.

“I’m a bit old fashioned and always preferred the stick control, but with the newer models, the precision control makes the manoeuvrability of the machine that much simpler and it’s more comfortable to operate.

“They are designed with the customer in mind and have 70 years of experience and expertise behind them, which is why after 40 years the JCB backhoe continues to be our machine of choice,” Eric says.

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