McCloskey International Picks up the Pace

On the first day of our visit to Northern Ireland the HUB-4 team visited McCloskey International at Moor Road in Coalisland. McCloskey International is the world’s largest independent manufacturer of Screening, Crushing, Washing & Classifying equipment and over the last two years have been investing and developing their Northern Ireland operations.

It’s a company that continues to invest and the recent acquisition of Lippmann-Milwaukee in the USA reflects that.

Demand for McCloskey products in general this year has been phenomenal, with increasing sales in many parts of the world including Australasia, Russia, China, France, Germany and of course the UK and Ireland. It has meant that around 200 additional jobs have been created at the UK locations over the last three years, doubling the company’s workforce across all sites in County Tyrone.

The Granville operation:
A short trip brought us to the newest facility – the Granville factory - where we met Dominic McKenna – Operations Director who took us on a factory tour.

Dominic has been in the industry 15 years with 11 of them at McCloskey and he told us about the new operation.

Dominic, commented, “We opened the new installation last March and phased it all in over a period of six months, getting each section up and running before moving our final assemblies to Granville. We now have complete production lines, for crushers, screeners and wash plants on an increased footprint of 60%. When we had completed the installation here at Granville we turned Killyman into a fabrication and R&D centre. The whole project cost £17 million including very large 32-ton cranes.”

“The building was designed with a high roof space which enables us to assemble complete wash plants, which often require more height than crushing and screening machines. This is critical as we run and test every single piece of equipment before disassembling and packing for transport, making site assembly of the equipment a much more efficient task.”

“We can also configure the production in the sheds to suit demand, it’s a very flexible operation which has enabled us to increase our crusher production by 100% and our screen production by 30%.”

“One of the biggest advantages for us is that previously all the sub-assemblies were divided and made separately, but now all under one roof with one supervisor, it is simple to tie it all together under a single management system.”

“With 70% of our sub-assemblies done in-house, the remainder is sourced through a network of trusted local sub-contractors which allows us to work very efficiently, while maintaining the high levels of quality we expect.”

We then sat down with Sean Loughran – Director of the Washing Systems Division - who with MWS’ expanding product lines is enjoying the company’s rapid growth as well.

“We originally started manufacturing our full range of Washing equipment here in Clonoe, Co. Tyrone. Last March, when we opened the new 120,000 sq. ft. facility at Granville, we were able to take advantage of the large assembly bays which handle the production for the S-line screens, the R-line screens, the crusher line and the washing line. Fitted with 28 overhead cranes, the Granville site is a final assembly and test facility and our fabrication is now completed between two of our other factories, all within a 10-mile radius.”

The McCloskey Washing division officially launched in 2016 and it’s been a busy few years for the team at McCloskey with incredible sales growth. The new assembly facility is at full capacity coupled with a strong order book and a host of new products in various stages of design, test and manufacture.

“North America has been a significant market for McCloskey Washing Division, with the Frac Sand market being particularly buoyant over the past 18 months. We now have 13 SandStorm ™ wash plants working in this industry with many more on the books for 2019”.

Sean gave us more detail, “We also have a lot of equipment sold in the UK, in particular C&D and Waste Recovery Plants. This year we have installed three very large static & modular plants and currently installing a further four which will all be showpieces. These plants, which include full waste recovery & water treatment systems, have been demonstrated to many of our European clients, leading to successful deals across this region.”

Dealers & Market Strategy
With a global dealer network of close to 100 dealers and machines now working in all geographies, the global reach of McCloskey International is evident. Multiple recent dealer signings in Western Europe, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand indicate a fast-moving business.

With a large plant just installed in Germany McCloskey Washing Systems has plans to host an impressive open day in 2019. This will add to the already planned MWS open days taking place in the UK, Australia and Ireland.

In April 2019, McCloskey International will again be exhibiting at Bauma, Munich, the world’s largest trade exhibition for this industry.

Product Portfolio
The primary focus in the company’s products is design and build quality, ease of assembly, ease of operation and ease of maintenance and this can be seen on each and every piece of equipment made at McCloskey across the Crushing, Screening and Washing equipment lines.

On the washing side, Sean commented, “We started off with the Sandstorm™ as our flagship product, then introduced our Compact Sand Plant range with static screens, logwasher range, stackers and water treatment plants following. Today, we have a full range of equipment to cater for all material & mineral washing and classification applications”.

As regards crushing and screening, the product portfolio is regularly being refined and updated to keep in line with market demand. Last year a new line of compact crushers was introduced to meet the evolving requirements of today’s projects, while maintaining the same high standard of McCloskey durability, reliability and quality. The J35 Jaw Crusher and the I34 Impact Crusher ranges are proving extremely popular, especially in the European market. Both ranges are the perfect solution for projects with small footprints but big requirements. These compact, mobile crushers are suited particularly to construction and demolition recycling, asphalt recycling and aggregates.

Future Growth
With the main focus on quality and growth, McCloskey still has 20% of the Granville site footprint to develop over the next three years and it’s clear to see that the new production lines are flexible and efficient enough to expand and develop with their developing market.