As a new member of the SPOA, we shine the spotlight on Flannery Plant Hire and find out more about Operations Director for Scotland and North East England, Graeme Hughes, and his personal career highlights from 40 years in the plant industry.

Flannery Plant Hire in Scotland

Following a massive renovation, Flannery Plant Hire opened its Glasgow depot in July 2025.

Officially opened by the Lord Provost of Glasgow, the Open Day welcomed customers, staff and suppliers to tour the facility. A piper entertained guests while they viewed some of the latest equipment including roto telehandlers, hydrogen 25 tonne excavators and electric excavators.

It was an opportunity to present the company’s vision for Scotland, where Flannery Plant Hire already has a longstanding depot at Dyce in Aberdeen, with a new depot further north in Scotland to be announced in the coming weeks.

Graeme’s role at Flannery Plant Hire

Graeme’s role is to grow the business in Scotland and the north east of England, supporting the customer base by offering the best equipment and operators possible along with the safest plant.

With this in mind, Flannery Plant Hire has invested in human form recognition cameras and ‘digital thumbs up’ technology, and now runs the largest fleet fitted with this equipment.

Graeme is keen to maintain a market leadership position in this field and is on a mission to make sure that Flannery’s customers are aware of the latest innovations being added to its fleet.

Opportunities in the plant industry

Graeme sees the biggest opportunities in plant hire in Scotland mainly coming from the north of Scotland with opportunities in power and distribution, the growth of offshore wind and the investment in road infrastructure.

Challenges in the plant industry

Like many others, Graeme identifies a skills shortage as one of the biggest challenges facing the industry and is keen to work with the SPOA to address this and attract new blood and apprentices. Having identified the opportunities for job creation in the industry, the skills shortage is a major obstacle to really capitalise on these.

Graeme is full of praise for the SPOA’s investment in the Tenstar simulator and Flannery Plant Hire is also playing its part in taking the simulator to schools and colleges in Scotland to introduce young people to the opportunities available in the plant industry.

Starting out in the industry

With such a passion for attracting young people into the industry, we find out more about Graeme’s personal career journey:

“I started when I left school at 16 with a company called McGee & McLaughlin. We were subcontracted to Millar Construction, and I was working as a labourer and pipe layer at Faslane and Coulport, building the military road and wrens’ accommodation in Faslane.

“McGee & McLaughlin was based in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, and I worked with them for four years before it became pretty apparent that I never wanted to be a pipe layer out in the cold all day and grabbed every opportunity I could to get a shot of a digger!

“I got my first big chance to learn at the Millar construction site in the battery park in Greenock loading tippers with a Liebherr 954 of Robert Dow’s, flung in at the deep end by an old friend Jim McShane. After that day I decided I could do this full time.”

Career progression

“I got my break with RB Murray Plant Hire in Renfrew where Bob and Bruce Murray took me under their wing as a plant operator. My first hire was in Craigmushcat Quarry in Gourock, which had its up and downs as I was as green as they came, but thanks to Bob, I slowly started to get better and become more confident.

“I worked with a Liebherr 900, excavating new drainage lines around the perimeter before moving on to operate Atlas,1704,1804 and Liebherr 912s and latterly Volvo EC 300 with a breaker.”

Graeme was soon asked to take on a completely different role as he explains: “There was a bit of a downturn in work. All the machines were parked up in the yard and good operators with nothing to do. So old Bob asked me to put a shirt and tie on, take his Isuzu Trooper on the road and try and get some hires. Within two weeks I’d got all the operators back out on hire and this was something I was to repeat again a few months later.

“It was whilst trying to drum up business that I got one of my biggest breaks with a gentleman called David McCaig of Laing O’Rourke who was building Braehead Shopping Centre in 1995. I managed to get in to see David who told me he wanted a 30-tonne excavator, but no transport would be paid. I said leave it with me, went back to the yard which was half a mile away and on the same road as the job, told the boys to get the 300 ready and jumped in it drove it up to the Braehead power station derelict ground which was very close to Clydeside. I had my heart in mouth a few times and eventually burst on to the construction site – much to David’s amazement of course!

“This was the making of me, and it resulted in most of our machines on hire for months and years. David (Davie) remains a lifelong friend of mine. This experience led me to take up a career in sales and I joined Clearwater DC 1999.

More opportunities came for Graeme with NWH Group in Edinburgh where he worked for four years, but the travel didn’t suit family life and not wishing to uproot his family, Graeme returned to Clearwater as a salesman, contracts manager and latterly commercial director. The last career move came in 2024.

Graeme describes this as his last big transfer: “I felt like Ronaldo getting his last big move! But my move was to Flannery Plant Hire where I started as Operations Director for Scotland and North East England with the task of growing in Scotland. To date, we have our long-standing depot in Dyce Aberdeen which has been there for over 10 years, Glasgow opened in July 2025 with a further north of Scotland due to be announced soon. The journey continues!”

It’s in the genes!

Graeme is the proud father to two sons, Graeme junior and Blair, who have also followed him into the plant industry and are multi-ticketed operators. Graeme junior recently completed three years in the mines in Australia and has returned and joined Flannery in charge of recruiting for Scotland. Blair has also joined Flannery Plant Hire as a cover operator and sales support.

Back to SPOA News