‘Is there anything you can't do with the engcon-Tilt?’

What at first glance appears unusual for a small company with currently four employees has a perfectly logical reason for the company director, who is just 27 years old. ‘You have to be broadly positioned in economically difficult times like today,’ says Philipp Kammel, who, with his company Pyramidenbau, founded three years ago, is primarily active in the areas of road construction, demolition and classic earthworks. Why the rather unusual name ‘Pyramidenbau’ for a company based in the Franconia region of Germany, where archaeologists have yet to discover a pyramid? ‘It was a crazy idea of my best mate Basti during our training as construction equipment operators,’ continues Philipp Kammel. ‘And because the name has a high recognition value, I took it.’

The fact that he is working as a subcontractor on major infrastructure projects so far away from Memmelsdorf is, of course, also related to the current construction crisis. ‘It has hit the Bamberg region hard. The price war is fierce, there are many insolvencies, even among my acquaintances,’ says Philipp Kammel, who, through his work as a subcontractor, wanted to minimise the economic risk for his company as much as possible from the outset. That is why, for example, he has not purchased his second excavator, a Volvo EW 170, but has taken it out on a long-term rental agreement. ‘I don't want to take too much risk with a company as young as mine.’

But it was also clear to him from the outset that he wanted to use his Liebherr excavator for a range of different jobs – and that it would therefore need to be equipped with the complete engcon package. ‘As an excavator operator, I have worked with a wide range of tiltrotators,’ says Philipp Kammel, “and engcon's has by far been the most convincing for me”. He says that an engcon tiltrotator has “more power than any other”, is “very compact and not as heavy in relation to other manufacturers” – in other words, “simply perfect for a short-tail excavator”.

The A 918 Compact is equipped with the EC219 tiltrotator and the fully automatic EC-Oil quick coupler QS60 including the detachable gripper clamp GRD and the machine control DC2 as well as the MIG2 joysticks. The engcon package also includes the SG19 stone and sorting grapples, the PC6000 compactor plate, the GH1200 pallet fork, the GRB2000 levelling bar, the R19 ripper tooth, the CB20 cable bucket and the DB06, DB12 and DB18 backhoe buckets. ‘We have pretty much everything we need,’ says Philipp Kammel. “And the good thing about it, in my opinion, is that it's all from a single source.” This is also evident from the service. If, for example, there are any questions about finetuning, he can always rely on the expertise of engcon specialists Karl Bahr and Michael Häußlein at the German headquarters in Wertheim. ‘They're always very easy to reach, take time and really know their stuff.’

He is impressed by the fact that there have ‘never’ been any technical problems with the engcon equipment so far. ‘The tiltrotator has now clocked up about 2,000 operating hours and never once has a screw been loose or a pipe leaked. It really is worth the money.’ Philipp Kammel has also found that he can work much more precisely and flexibly with the tiltrotator, and ‘at least 25 to 50 per cent faster’. For example, he once needed just two days for track work for Deutsche Bahn, the German railway, instead of the three days that had been planned. The amazed foreman commented, ‘Is there anything you can't do with the engcon tiltrotator?’

Philipp Kammel has also found that thanks to engcon, he is also ‘more sustainable on the road’. ‘You can change the various attachments much faster and you have to move the excavator less for different jobs,’ he says. This is of course noticeable in terms of fuel consumption. ‘I estimate that I save up to 20 litres a week as a result.’ ‘All in all, it was the best decision for me to choose engcon as a partner,’ emphasises Philipp Kammel. He also sees this confirmed in comments from customers, such as: ‘You may be a bit more expensive than others, but you more than make up for it with your speed.’

Philipp Kammel is particularly proud of the fact that, after graduating from vocational school, completing his training and working as a grader driver at Strabag, he ‘built the company from the ground up on his own’. This was something he was probably born with. ‘Even as a small child, I always liked being on construction sites and sat on my grandpa's excavator's bucket,’ he recalls. ‘And I knew early on that I wanted to start my own company.’ He worked hard for this and ‘saved a lot’. With this and a ‘reasonable business plan’, he managed to secure the financing for the Liebherr excavator. He therefore has the following advice for those wishing to follow in his footsteps: ‘Being self-employed is a privilege. If you want more than everyone else, you have to be willing to work harder than everyone else.’

Philipp Kammel also has a clear vision of how his company's construction business should develop. After his wedding in May this year to his girlfriend Laura, who is responsible for the commercial work, the purchase of a Takeuchi excavator in the five-tonne class is on the cards, and a second Liebherr A918 Compact is to be purchased by next year at the latest – both equipped with the engcon package, consisting of a tiltrotator, ECOil quick coupler and DC2 control. ‘And in about three years, we want to move into our new company premises, because we are staying loyal to the region.’