A PLANT-HIRE company bought out of administration just eight months ago has gone on to invest more than £100,000 in new equipment.

UKD Diggers has spent the cash on six small excavators and branched out into the DIY and gardening trade in a bid to beat the credit crunch.

The firm, now a smaller operation than a year ago, says that by restructuring it has managed to stay afloat, despite a drop in trade as the housing market slumps.

Dave Bennett, sales manager at the firm, based in Hilton Industrial Estate, Sutton Lane, said: "We have seen a reduction in trade and we are now on a lot smaller scale.

"But whereas a lot of larger companies are struggling, with equipment parked up and unused, we have been through it and are the survivors now.

"We actually ran out of the smaller diggers as we did not have enough to meet the demand and had to go out and get some more."

In October last year Derby firm Gainsborough Properties stepped in to resurrect UK Diggers after administrator Baker Tilly was instructed to close down the business.

The premises were handed back to the estate's owner, Kevin Ellis, but he wanted to see it continue as a plant-hire business and formed a new firm called UKD Diggers, saving seven of the 17 jobs.

The company provides a range of excavators, dumpers and rollers.

It bought Bobcat diggers, at a cost of £100,000, which weigh 1.5 tonnes and can be used in gardens and for household extensions.

Mr Bennett said: "I don't think the construction and housing market will pick up any time soon. They are the areas which have been worst hit.

"I speak to a lot of people, and companies are not sure what is going to happen – there is not much good news there.

"So we have branched out into the drainage, landscape gardening and the DIY market and that is going well.

"If people can't afford to buy a new house it seems they are having extensions and work done – that is where the market is.

"And at that level we have found that business is good, it is positive for us. We are now optimistic but cautious."

UK Diggers experienced rapid growth after its 2003 launch, and in 2004 founders Wayne Smith and Howard Thacker, both Derby County fans, agreed a two-year deal to sponsor the East Stand at Pride Park.