Plant machinery maintenance specialist United Plant Services (UPS) has been awarded a new service and maintenance contract by LafargeHolcim's UK-based subsidiary Aggregate Industries (AI).

In total, UPS has been assigned servicing responsibility for 50 per cent of AI's plant assets located across northern Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Southeast of England.

 UPS’s team of engineers will offer its services to AI both through a mobile network of appointed operatives, and via two, onsite workshop facilities.

The quarry-based workshops are located at Aggregate Industry sites in Cookstown, Northern Ireland, and on the Isle of Grain in Kent. By being based at these specialist facilities, teams of qualified engineers will be able to maximise the maintenance and specialist services available to Aggregate Industries, while providing concentrated breakdown response.

The development of the new contract, together with the introduction of the specialist workshops, will involve TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings – Protection of Employment), to ensure employment continuity for existing members of Aggregate Industries’ staff. The contract will also signify the introduction of UPS and its services to the Northern Irish market for the first time.

Commenting on Aggregate Industries’ decision to select UPS as its service provider, Paul Mitchinson, National HME Fleet Manager, said: “Aggregate Industries currently operates a varied range of assets throughout the UK and United Plant Services has demonstrated its technical ability to provide a service which caters for all of these asset types.

“The newly-introduced software package which UPS is using will provide paperless real-time reporting and tracking of scheduled and completed works. This means all our UK sites will have access to the UPS portal to view events and download information as required. We are very keen to start working with UPS to provide a seamless maintenance solution to reduce downtime and increase utilisation throughout the fleet.”