The deal takes its fleet of Volvos to over 200 machines spread across seven depots.

Joint managing director Nigel Chippindale said: “After the last five years of making painful decisions to consolidate our entire machinery fleet, lose staff and find ways to make the business much more streamlined and efficient, we have finally turned a corner.”

“We are seeing slow, but steady signs of recovery and the time is now right for a modest increase to our fleet, in addition to replacing of some of our older models.”

The Yorkshire sales and hire business has been gradually growing and its recent acquisition of Ambrose Hire’s north east operation has spread its reach to Newcastle.

“The City of Newcastle is where we can see additional business developing,” added Chippindale. “It’s within 40 miles of our Catterick depot, making logistics for this new branch an easy step to manage.”

The firm’s sales division has also sold 32 mini excavators in just four months, beating previous years.