Anniversary marked by continued growth

Pladdet may be celebrating an anniversary, but the growth is far from over. That was proven by the foreign dealers present during the open days. "We are focusing more strongly on exports and want to continue to grow outside the Netherlands," says co-director Jonathan de Putter. "Hence we had many foreign dealers visiting during these two open days." Incidentally, they hardly stood out among the thousands of other visitors, that's how busy it was in Biervliet.

An interested visitor gets an explanation at the rolling machine used to shape the steel plates of the bins.

World War II was still in full swing when brothers Krijn and Ko Pladdet started an agricultural contracting business in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. Soon machines were sold and the demand for attachments for excavators grew rapidly. So Pladdet has been growing from the beginning. Meanwhile, the third generation is at the helm in Biervliet, the rural location.

An obvious signpost to Pladdet's open house in Biervliet.

Jonathan de Putter and Gerrit Cazant are brothers-in-law and childhood friends, and they both see opportunities in the international arena. That is why, since taking office in 2009, they have been building a worldwide dealer network. Pladdet thrives, develops and innovates and always from the family values of quality and reliability. "Therefore," both executives say, "we are always committed to delivering a good product at a fair price." And they take good care of their more than 100 own employees and loyal customers, with the dealership of top brand Hitachi playing a major role, of course.

At the demo site, there was great interest in the new soil/ballast dredger attached to a Hitachi Zaxis 210LC.

It works

The question, of course, is whether that works. Well, that question was answered on Friday, May 24 and Saturday, May 25, by the visitors, who showed up in large numbers. While the previous open house in 2010 attracted some 3,500 visitors, this time there were well over 5,000. So a complimentary crowd for the employees of Pladdet. That the visitors did not get in each other's way has its own reason. When yours truly visited the company a few years ago, some production halls had already been added. During the open days at the end of May, it turned out that three more halls had been added. A logical consequence of the continued growth of the product range.

In the halls with the job booth and supplier presentations, it was a coming and going of curious visitors.

Fun news

Not only in numbers, Pladdet continues to grow steadily in the types of products. So we saw an extensive display of SMP tiltrotators and related products, Woodpecker's wood grabs and splitters were not to be overlooked, a Hitachi excavator with a (gravel) suction bucket was running and Jonathan de Putter told us about the Movax dealership. The Finnish company is known for its innovative methods of placing sheet piles and pilings in the ground, has augers and pre-drillers and all for a wide range of applications: from road and rail to water and energy.

In addition, Pladdet is now a familiar name in the demolition world, with its own line of demolition hammers, and we also see pulverizers, combination shears and scrap shears lined up on the warehouse shelves.

The open house at Pladdet had plenty to offer for young and old alike.

Adjusting machines

The thousands of visitors were led through the entire company via a winding walkway. With their own eyes, they were able to see how attachments and attachments are manufactured from start to finish by Pladdet employees. From designing with the help of 3D drawing programs, whose drawings control machines in the workshop, to the much manual work in assembling and welding that multitude of in-house products. The list is long, and in addition to the many standard products (grippers, buckets, pallet frames...) it often involves custom attachments. Special branch of sport is the modification of machines: the construction of triple booms, lengthening of booms (long-fronts), strengthening of demolition booms, conversion to adjustable/tilting cabs, ballast reinforcements, and so on.