Battered but unbowed

August 18, 2025 Long Form

If you’ve seen any of the Rocky movies, you’ve seen him. The fighter.

Not the flashy young contender, bouncing on his toes, unmarked by the scars of battle. No. This one’s been there. In the ring. In the mud. In the dust. In the cold dawns and the long nights. His face carries a reminder of every glove that laid him down, or cut him.

That fighter, my friends, is our industry. Demolition and construction. A noble old bruiser that’s been swinging for decades. An industry that’s tasted glory and hardship in equal measure. An industry that’s worn the belts, but also worn the bruises.

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The Break Fast Show #981

August 18, 2025 Video

In today’s show: XCMG on the world’s largest cable-stay bridge; the LiuGong electric excavator swings into action; Komatsu cuts repair costs with remanufactured parts; and Belgian quality and no waffle from Gebroeders Geens.

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: Battered and unbowed. But for how much longer?

Join host Mark Anthony LIVE for The Break Fast Show – the ONLY daily LiveStream built exclusively for demolition, construction, and equipment fanatics worldwide.

Breaking news. Expert views. Unmissable videos. Raw opinions. If it matters in the industry, we’re talking about it – LIVE.

Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.

And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!

Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.

Right Hand vs Left Hand

August 15, 2025 General

Across America this week, in the midst of a nationwide heatwave, homeowners are being urged to restrict their use of air conditioning to reduce energy consumption and to protect the national grid. At the same time, AI companies are springing up, opening huge, energy hungry server farms just so users can create images of women with unfeasibly large breasts.

This is a prime example of the right hand and the left hand being at odds. And nowhere is that left versus right hand conflict more evident than in the sphere of demolition and construction.

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The Break Fast Show #980

August 15, 2025 Video

In today’s show: LiuGong’s exciting electric range; making the grade; we’re taking a detailed look at the latest ADTs from Develon; and we’re Down Under with Kobelco.

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: Left Hand versus Right Hand.

Join host Mark Anthony LIVE for The Break Fast Show – the ONLY daily LiveStream built exclusively for demolition, construction, and equipment fanatics worldwide.

Breaking news. Expert views. Unmissable videos. Raw opinions. If it matters in the industry, we’re talking about it – LIVE.

Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.

And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!

Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.

Trading Places

August 14, 2025 Long Form

Picture this. It’s a regular Tuesday morning. The sun’s barely up, the kettle’s just boiled, and somewhere in this great and glorious industry of ours, something utterly ridiculous and entirely unexpected happens. A demolition boss and a demolition worker swap lives. I’m not talking “trade jobs for a week” in one of those cheesy team-building exercises. I mean a full-on body swap. Like the movie Freaky Friday, except with more high-vis and swearing and fewer teenage tantrums.

One minute, Dave – who has been driving an excavator for the past 15 years – is pulling on his boots, and the next, he’s sat in a leather chair behind a mahogany desk, staring at a laptop that’s pinging like a microwave. And up the road, Martin – who actually owns the company, drives a flash car, and has Managing Director on his business card – is suddenly in a muddy site cabin, holding a hard hat and wondering why his hands already smell faintly of diesel.

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The Break Fast Show #979

August 14, 2025 Video

In today’s show: Volvo’s latest excavators explained; Komatsu’s latest wheel loaders are designed to deliver; ZQuip and Leica come together for forge the future; and how the Cat Central app is simplifying equipment maintenance.

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: Trading places.

Join host Mark Anthony LIVE for The Break Fast Show – the ONLY daily LiveStream built exclusively for demolition, construction, and equipment fanatics worldwide.

Breaking news. Expert views. Unmissable videos. Raw opinions. If it matters in the industry, we’re talking about it – LIVE.

Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.

And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!

Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.

One bite at a time

August 13, 2025 Long Form

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

It’s an old joke. Not a great one. But, if you think about it, it’s not really a joke at all. It’s a survival guide disguised as humour. Because when you’re standing in front of something so big, so complex, so completely unmanageable that you can’t even get your head around it, you’ve only got two choices: you can throw up your hands and walk away; or you can take that first bite.

Our industry — demolition, construction, all of it — is an elephant. A big one. And, truth be told, not a particularly friendly one. We’ve got accidents that shouldn’t happen but still do. We’ve got men and women who never make it home because something went wrong. We’ve got a skills gap you could drive a dump truck through. We’ve got sites where women and minorities are still treated like they’ve wandered into the wrong party. We’ve got conditions that would make an office worker faint before lunch. We’ve got workloads that swing from famine to feast in the space of a week. We’ve got margins so thin you can see through them. And we’ve got a mental health crisis that is costing lives on an almost daily basis.

That’s a lot of elephant.

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The Break Fast Show #978

August 13, 2025 Video

In today’s show: Boosting your profitability with Hitachi Construction Machinery; on the road with Takeuchi; prepping your Liebherr telehandler for a day of work; and John Deere keeps the wheels – and the tracks – turning.

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: One bite at a time.

Join host Mark Anthony LIVE for The Break Fast Show – the ONLY daily LiveStream built exclusively for demolition, construction, and equipment fanatics worldwide.

Breaking news. Expert views. Unmissable videos. Raw opinions. If it matters in the industry, we’re talking about it – LIVE.

Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.

And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!

Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.

If it’s broke, don’t fix it

August 12, 2025 Long Form

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Setting aside the poor grammar, that is a phrase we have all heard and most of us have probably used.

Here in the field of demolition and construction, we have a slightly different take on that phrase. “If it’s broke, don’t fix it unless there’s money to be made”. In short, failure is often more profitable than the solution.

Think about all the big issues facing the UK demolition and construction sector: accidents and fatalities; an insurmountable skills shortage; a deepening mental health crisis; an ongoing gender and racial imbalance; questionable working conditions.

None of these factors and challenges are new. In fact, accidents and fatalities, the skills shortage and sketchy working conditions have been a part of the industry furniture for as long as I or anyone else can remember.

No-one can claim a lack of awareness of any of these issues. They are discussed at length within companies, industries and trade bodies up and down the country. Some of them are the subject of regular campaigns and initiatives. Some even get their own dedicated day or week of recognition. But the problems underpinning those campaigns and initiatives remain because tolerating these issues is considerably cheaper than actually addressing them.

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The Break Fast Show #977

August 12, 2025 Video

In today’s show: Rammer – Born in the hardest rock; Bethell Group takes to Takeuchi; you only live twice with Liebherr; and Volvo’s electric efficiency

PLUS in Mark’s Morning Monologue: It’s broke, but don’t fix it.

Join host Mark Anthony LIVE for The Break Fast Show – the ONLY daily LiveStream built exclusively for demolition, construction, and equipment fanatics worldwide.

Breaking news. Expert views. Unmissable videos. Raw opinions. If it matters in the industry, we’re talking about it – LIVE.

Test your knowledge with the Mystery Machine, have your say in the Question of the Day, and don’t miss Mark’s Morning Monologue – a no-holds-barred take on the hottest topics.

And when the show’s done, the conversation’s just getting started. Stick around for The Craic, our legendary after-show chat!

Set your alarm. Grab your coffee. It’s time to break fast, and to break new ground.