Australian-owned company Excavator Parts is celebrating 10 years in business this month and director Peter Jilg has some big plans for 2019 and beyond
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Excavator Parts apprentice Jayden has followed in the footsteps of his father Peter
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Excavator Parts supplies an extensive range of new and used excavator parts, seal kits and undercarriages within Australia and worldwide, all from its premises on the mid-north coast of New South Wales in Wauchope, about 20 minutes west of Port Macquarie.
The team specialise in rebuilds for hydraulic pumps, travel motors and final drives. Its services include dismantling, full rebuilds, hydraulic parts, undercarriage work and seal kits.
In regard to the undercarriage work, Excavator Parts can work on anything ranging from two to 40-tonnes, including sprockets, idlers, track rollers, carrier rollers, chains, track groups and rubber tracks.
Director Peter Jilg got his first taste of the industry through his apprenticeship at a hydraulics shop in Victoria when he was just 17 years old.
“Although we are celebrating 10 years now, I have been in the industry for almost 20 years and can offer expert technical advice and repairs for all types of excavators and hydraulic units,” Jilg says.
The team will get together for a dinner to celebrate their 10th anniversary as a business in mid-December.
Excavator Parts now has four staff and they will be taking on a new apprentice to assist them early next year.
A family business by anyone’s definition, Jilg’s daughter Rebeka works as the business administrator and his son Jayden is working there as an first-year apprentice diesel-fitter while studying Mobile Plant Technology, along with “a few other lads out the back” to round out the team nicely.
“Having the kids help me with the business and providing a future for them is a huge motivating factor for me. I couldn’t do it without them really and I just want to thank everyone who has helped to support and contribute to the business over the last 10 years,” says Jilg.
The organisation started out supplying mostly excavator parts and it has largely stuck with that as its specialty and people come from all around because of its expertise in excavators of all shapes and sizes, makes and models, says Jilg.
“We’ve stuck with what we know best, rather than trying to be everything to everybody,” he explains.
“Although we are only small in terms of staff, we are one of the biggest machine dismantlers and keep a huge range of excavator parts in stock.
“We get a lot of people driving here from Sydney and Brisbane to get their parts fixed.
“We have a yard that’s full of machines that have been partially dismantled, like a car wreckers.
“If people are having issues with their excavator of just individual parts, they either send it to us or bring it to us and have it fixed at the same time and there aren’t many places around Australia that offer that kind of flexible service anymore really and I think that’s has really contributed to our success.
“There are very few people who will pull a final drive apart for example, or would even know how they go back together or diagnose tricky problems with the hydraulics and that’s where we can help.”
2019 is shaping up to be another big year for the crew, with Peter looking to expand the land his business sits on, which will allow him to rapidly expand on his popular ‘pick a part’ service and to offer an even wider range of parts.
“We are sitting on 2,200 square metres now, but we are looking at buying a bit more neighbouring land sort of mid-next year, which will give us a whole other yard to wreck machines in and that will effectively more than double our size here.”
Excavator Parts carries a wide range of spare and replacement parts for brands including, but not limited to: Case; Caterpillar; Daewoo; GB Hammer; Hitachi; IHI; Kobelco; Komatsu; Kubota; New Holland; Samsung; Sumitomo; Takahuchi; Volvo; Yanmar and Zaxis.