Hill Engineering Ltd has signed an agreement to supply its 'Safety First' Auto-Loc excavator quick hitch to Woods Equipment Company, one of the USA's largest independent manufacturers and suppliers of construction and agricultural equipment attachments.

Woods Equipment Company provides customers in the USA and Canada with a large selection of attachments for excavators, wheel loaders, tractor loader backhoes and skid steer loaders.

Auto-Locs are now being manufactured by Hill and delivered to Woods for sale in the United States. All hitches are produced at Hill Engineering's factory in Newry, Co. Down.

Invest Northern Ireland has helped Hill Engineering to ramp up its overseas marketing capability, as well as significantly improve productivity and efficiency at its Newry factory.

The supply deal was signed by Hill Engineering's founder and Managing Director, Ian Hill, and representatives of Woods Equipment Company at the CONEXPO 2008 event in Las Vegas.

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Ian Hill said: "There is no American-made quick hitch with the unique safety features to be found in the Auto-Loc, which is why Woods Equipment Company has decided to take it on board. The sales agreement represents a major breakthrough for us as it gives us inroads into Woods' vast distribution network of more than 2,000 construction equipment dealers across North America and Canada."

Woods Equipment Company’s Chairman, President & CEO, Fred Korndorf, said: "The Auto-Loc is fully automatic, with a visible safety mechanism, so there is no need for the operator to leave the excavator cab to remove or insert a safety pin when changing from one attachment to another.

"This rules out the risk of a safety pin being inserted incorrectly or not being inserted at all, which is why we consider it to be the safest and best engineered quick hitch on the market today."

More than 6,000 Auto-Loc fully automatic quick hitches are now in regular use around the world, with continuing excellent feedback being received from users.

Originally established in 1994, Hill Engineering moved to new £4.5m, 85,000sq.ft, purpose-designed, state-of-the-art premises in 2006, whilst retaining its original nearby factory as a dedicated research & development facility.

Hill also produce a range of heavy duty steel excavator buckets, enabling them to provide a top quality hitches and buckets package for its customers, and the company is currently investing around £2m in the robotic automation of their entire bucket production line.

(GK/JM)