Leeds gets drive-thru concrete

Palmer Landscapes, a family landscaping business in Leeds, has acquired the fifth Fibo Collect readymix concrete machine in the UK.

Fibo Collect machines enable small builders and DIYers to buy small batches of readymix concrete on a drive-thru, self-service basis.

Customers can place orders from as little as 0.25 cubic metres and get serviced in less than five minutes by using a touch screen terminal.

Palmer Landscapes director Adam Palmer said: “When we spotted the technology earlier this year I was immediately drawn to the potential it had to help our local customers save both time and money whilst also being more sustainable. We are very proud to be the first core landscaping business in the UK to adopt this solution and of course the first ones in Yorkshire.”

The fully automated batching plant for concrete, mortar and screed collections is scheduled to go live at Palmer Landscapes later this year.

As previously reported, the mini batching plants are made in Denmark by Fibo Intercon. The first UK customer was Thorncliffe Building Supplies in Mold, which opened in February. To date, the average order size per collection from Thorncliffe has been 0.5 to 0.6m cubic metres.

Thorncliffe has since ordered a second plant, for its Dyserth site.

In March, Carvers Building Supplies ordered the first English machine for its branch in Wolverhampton. The next month Cartmore Building Supplies purchased the first Scottish machine for its branch in Lochgelly. Palmer in Leeds therefore becomes the fifth Fibo Collect in the UK.