Forestry Journal – August 2019

FORESTRYJOURNAL.CO.UK AUGUST 20 19 67

considerably by making many of the
standards or forestall flails interchangeable
with a fixed tooth rotor.”
Forestry is, by far, Approved Hydraulics’
largest market when it comes to
attachments, which Adam said has had a
“huge impact” on the growth of the business
over the past 10 years.
“It all started when we took on
the Intermercato and Baltrotors UK
dealerships. These brands took
off really well in the UK
and enabled us to gain
some breathing space
to look at expanding
the range. The growth
was predominantly
customer led.
Customers would buy
log grabs and tree
shears and ask us if we
did other products such
as stump grinders, flails etc.
This quickly led us into more
forestry products which took off
just as fast, such as the FEMAC
flails and mulchers, which are also
one of the UK market leaders now.”
So, what’s popular at the moment?
Anything from the Intermercato range,
according to Adam. FEMAC is always very
popular as well. “We always have around
50–100 attachments on order at any one
time,” he said.
Current top sellers include the TG 16 SR 5
(5-tine) log grab from Intermercato, which

features a small, rigid-

mount rotator on the top;

and the T3 90 from FEMAC.

Reflecting on the latter, Adam

said: “We simply cannot get these

out of the factory quick enough. Last

year, we sold 60 of this model alone.”

Not only does Approved Hydraulics

supply these brands, it also offers its

own full range of hydraulic components.

Launched around five years ago, the

HYDRA-Part range includes control valves,

line-mounted valves, pumps, PTO units,

tanks, motors, stabiliser pads and cages,

to name but a few in what is an ever-

expanding range.

“WE’VE NEVER BEEN

THE TYPE OF COMPANY

TO TURN DOWN A

CHALLENGE, SO WE DECIDED

TO COMPETE.”

The motive behind this venture was

simple – competition. When the world

migrated online to purchase parts,

Approved Hydraulics had two options –

compete or simply bow out.

“We’ve never been the type of company

to turn down a challenge, so we decided

to compete,” Adam said. “Once we found

all the right parts and the right price,

we started an all-singing, all-dancing

‘buy online’ website. This has been very

successful as we now sell a full range

of standard hydraulic equipment to end

users, dealers and original equipment

manufacturers.”

Approved Hydraulics’ own range of

Far left: An Approved

Hydraulics AH800LC log

cracker.

Left middle: The Approved

Hydraulics AH800CS cone

splitter at work.

Left: A FEMAC T20 heavy-

duty mulcher.