SWM Waste Recycling smart choice

Barnstaple based waste recycling company SWM & Waste Recycling Limited make a carefully considered choice and move to Sennebogen with a new 830E scrap handler and 821E material handler.

Established in 1959, SWM has been a long standing and trusted part of the South West recycling community, and have built their reputation by exceeding customer expectations and delivering high levels of service. Today the business offers a full range of Waste Recycling services including Total Waste Management, Skip Hire, Wheeled Bins, Skip Bags, Vehicle Dismantling, Metal Recycling and Hazardous Waste management, with a Zero waste to Landfill target, and a culture that puts Health & Safety at the forefront of everything they do.

Now with Ray Penfold & Shawn Akers, the second generation in the family to own the company and Martin Mogford as MD to run the business at the helm, the business still holds the family values on which it was originally based.

Shawn said “we have a tight knit team of long standing employees that we know and trust. They have all played a big part in our successes over the years.” It is clear from this approach why Shawn has made sure his staff had such a large input into this recent purchase decision. “It is important to us that the guys operating the machines are happy with them. Their input was key to the decision to move away from our previous supplier that we had been buying from for many years.”

Steve Palfreyman, SWM Maintenance manager went on to discuss the rigorous process that was undertaken to compare the comparable machines available in the market when purchasing their latest scrap handler: “Of course the price is a factor, but it is only part of the decision-making process we went through. We spent a lot of time evaluating the safety features and the true-life cost of each machine, considering purchase price, fuel consumption, servicing costs and anticipated residual values.”

“We compared the machines on paper, before getting the best options for a hands-on trial to put them through their paces, it was then that the Sennebogen really stood apart from the competition”. Steve went on to talk about the differences they identified between the Sennebogen 830E and the competitors equivalent: “we found we got about 1m additional reach with the Sennebogen, and we also preferred the uninterrupted operators view thanks to joystick steering option (no steering wheel column blocking line of sight), as well as the build quality and reliability of the Robotec 0.8m capacity orange peel grab attachment that came with the Sennebogen.”

Both Shawn and Steve were very keen to point out that as part of their purchasing process, it wasn’t all about the machine; they also looked closely at the business we would be buying from and looked for a company which had similar outlook and principals, it was obvious from the first few conversations that this was the case. Steve said: “confidence in the aftersales backup is critical for us. We run multiple busy sites and a machine down can soon cause big headaches. Although we have not had to call on Molson yet, the proximity of Molson’s Bristol depot and the scale of their operation give us confidence that they can get us going when called upon.”

Associated Businesses

  • Molson Group are the UK’s largest independent new and used equipment dealer. With a customer focused approach, we are able to provide clients of all sizes a single source supply option of market leading products, backed up by a tea...