LiuGong is adopting a targeted approach to growing its market share in the UK and hopes to add more dealers to its network to cover the north of Scotland.
Harry Mellor, LiuGong UK and Ireland sales director, spoke to Project Plant ahead of the recent Hillhead exhibition. The event followed hot on the heels of another impressive showcase for LiuGong at ScotPlant 2026 where the brand was represented by dealer Lloyd Ltd.
Harry believes increased visibility of LiuGong machines on Scottish sites will help drive sales. Equipment from the Chinese-headquartered manufacturer has been operating in locations including Glensanda, the granite quarry on Scotland’s west coast, where a heavyweight 95-tonne 995F excavator has been deployed.
At the time of interview, Harry revealed the business was looking for ‘one or two’ dealers to cover the northern territories, explaining the importance of having local specialists available to provide the level of backup that LiuGong is committed to delivering.
“LiuGong is not in the frame of mind to just stick machines out there and hope for the best,” Harry revealed. “We want to make sure that when we sell a machine, we support it. We’d rather go steadier and do right by our customers than just go hell for leather.
“We’re picking our dealers as we go. They’ve got to buy into the brand and understand what we’re about. We have no intention of being the cheapest on the market. All these machines (on display at Hillhead) are application-focused.
“Our whole Hillhead theme is ‘Expert Insight. Proven On Site’. We’re saying we have expertise in some key areas. We’re very targeted in what we do.”
Harry highlighted LiuGong’s increased presence at UK trade shows in recent years. At events like ScotPlant and Hillhead, customers have been able to see first-hand the quality of the portfolio and take confidence from components such as Kawasaki hydraulics and Cummins engines.
The LiuGong line-up in the UK ranges from a wide variety of excavators through to wheel loaders, dump trucks, compaction solutions, forklifts and AWPs.
Harry explained the brand has always sold well into the quarry and demolition sector due to how ‘tough’ the machines are. Gaining a foothold in the civil engineering/construction space has proved more challenging and part of the strategy of bringing dealers on board has been to provide full coverage and more fitters.
With sustainability becoming an ever-increasing focus across all sectors, a key differentiator for LiuGong has been its leadership and innovation in battery-electric construction equipment (BEV).
“We’ve shipped over 65,000 electric machines globally across all platforms – construction, access, forklifts,” Harry said. “On a diesel machine in the UK, (customers) buy it for three years and then get rid of it before the major costs (start to add up). On electric machines, the longer you keep it, the more money you save. We’ve got over 200 machines now running 225,000 hours with the same battery.”
LiuGong’s evolution in the UK market is perhaps best emphasised by the fact Harry admitted there are huge names in the plant hire sector now approaching LiuGong that, by his own admission, he ‘couldn’t have dreamt of working with five years ago’.
“Now they’re knocking on our door and messaging us on LinkedIn to say we need to have a chat. You need to have a differentiator. We’re never going to come in and sell on price because that’s a race to the bottom. We’ve always said that to break into the market, we’ve got to have something better than someone else.”
A key tenet of this approach has been to look at existing machines and work out ways to add extra value. Harry cited the example of the 56-tonne 956F crawler excavator, which has been adapted to satisfy the demands of quarry operators in particular.
“We were finding a lot of people saying they wanted a 75-tonner but were not understanding that if they go to that, all their trucks would have to change with it,” Harry said. “We took that machine, put it on a 65-tonne undercarriage, beefed up the boom and cylinders, and put a larger pump on it.
“If you’re running larger demolition attachments, running a bigger bucket, you can move more material without going up a class.If you can get away with having a 56-tonne machine rather than a 75-tonne machine, it’s a massive saving on your purchase, fuel, and maintenance.”
At Hillhead, LiuGong gave debuts to ten new machines. One of the highlights of the display was the DR50CE battery-electric rigid dump truck, boasting a 50-tonne payload, zero emissions, and ‘near-zero’ energy use during 6-8% downhill operation via motor feedback. “This a really special machine because it’s the first direct drive electric machine,” Harry explained.
“The motor is bolted directly to the rear axle, so when you are in a particular downhill application, you can drive the machine up empty, load it at the top, and then going downhill it has an electronic retarder which generates electricity, so it recoups the energy.
“A 50-tonne rigid dump would (typically) be burning 20 litres an hour. There’s one site that’s going to which is working 18 hours a day. Imagine the amount of fuel you could completely wipe off your bill!”
