French Connection – Poullard takes delivery of its first HL970A Wheel Loader

Stéphane Poullard is Chairman of the business that bears the family name, founded by his father, Alain Poullard, in 1979. The company is based in Lèves in the Eure-et-Loir region of France, a few kilometres from Chartres.

Specialising in landscaping, roads and utilities infrastructure and demolition, the company has just acquired its first machine from Hyundai, an HL970A Wheel Loader, from a local dealership, Inter Locations Matériels.

“It was my father, Alain Poullard, who founded the Poullard company in the late 1970s. We are based near Chartres and specialise in landscaping, demolition and road and utilities infrastructure. My father originally started his business on his own. A lot of his business came from machine rental for companies such as Colas and, little by little, he started to work on sites of increasing scale as the company grew over the years”, explains Stéphane Poullard, who now runs the company.

“I joined the company in 2000 as a full-time site manager and then as a works manager. There were around ten employees in the company at the time. Poullard now has 25 employees on the payroll, with a turnover of 4.3 million euros”, adds the 43-year-old manager. The company mainly covers the Eure-et-Loire, Yvelines and Essonne regions. “We cover an area of around forty or even fifty kilometres from the company, but we try to stay within an hour’s drive”, he adds.

The company has enjoyed continued growth over the years and, in 2005, opened a recycling centre located in Chartres-Poisvilliers called Granudem, which is managed by Aline Poullard. In 2014, it set up a company called Chartres Amiante that specialises in asbestos and lead removal, technical cleaning and dust extraction.

Stéphane Poullard has a number of machines to carry out this work (a crusher, an excavator, etc.) made by different manufacturers. But a problem with his last loader led him to invest in a Hyundai HL970A Wheel Loader from Inter Locations Matériels. “I hire a lot of equipment from Franck Hoyau of Inter Locations Matériels all year round. I’ve known him for more than twenty years and it was only natural for me to turn to him when I started looking for a new machine. I had the opportunity to visit Tessenderlo in Belgium to try out machines, which was a big help in reaching a decision”, says Stéphane Poullard.

Delivered at the beginning of the year, the Hyundai HL970A Wheel Loader has won over its new owner. “What I liked the most was the 360-degree view provided by the Hyundai AAVM system. The strong point on this machine is safety – something genuinely important to me. Mainly used at the company’s recycling site, it also features a weighing system and a 4500-litre bucket, both of which are perfect for my business”, says Stéphane Poullard.

HL970A Wheel Loader
The HL970A Wheel Loader is part of Hyundai’s A-series: a fresh generation of construction equipment that complies with the European Stage-V emissions levels. It is designed for long-term sturdiness and reliability to reduce operating costs and improve productivity. It has an operating weight of 24,200 kg and comes with a Cummins L9/EU Stage-V engine that delivers a gross power output of 325 horsepower (242 kW) at 2100 rpm. Its bucket capacity is 4.20 m3 (heaped) and 3.60 m3 (struck). The bucket’s breakout force is as much as 21,715 kg.

Unrivalled comfort
“Comfort is a big feature of this model. Most heavy construction equipment operators work long hours over long days. It is therefore essential that they feel their best inside their working tool – also with an eye to reducing downtime. So there’s nothing like a spacious and comfortable operator’s cabin! The manufacturer understands this completely”, says the company manager.

With this model, Hyundai provides equipment operators with exceptional comfort. Like the rest of the series, the HL970A offers a large, comfortable seat with air suspension and heating as standard. The seat and armrest are fully adjustable. The instrument panel is optimised to provide simple, quick, easy access to machine status information as you work. It is fitted with a very easily readable and user-friendly touchscreen.

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