In 1972 Hovers Constructie NV went out of business. To continue support of existing customer, Hitachi Construction Machinery Europe (HCME) was incorporated on April 1, 1972, as the first foreign branch of Hitachi Construction Machinery. With its brief opened to cover Africa and the Middle East, in 1981 the company opened a parts Distribution Center. In April 2007 they took over the UK distributor HM Plant, who are based in a purpose built distribution facility at Hebburn on Tyneside.