New €50 million Euro Global Headquarters and Manufacturing Facility Takes Combilift to Next Level
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Forklift manufacturer and material handling solutions provider Combilift has officially opened its new global headquarters and manufacturing facility in Monaghan, Ireland.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar TD said: “Combilift is an incredible home-grown success story. When the company was founded 20 years ago, it had three employees, a brilliant concept, and the ambition to make it a reality”
Built at a cost of €50 million, the investment in the new 46,500 sq. m. (500,000 sq. ft) facility will allow Combilift to realise its ambitious growth plans. Martin McVicar, Managing Director said: “We have employed an additional 230 people since we announced our plans for this factory in 2015 and the combination of this state of the art production plant and the growing skilled workforce will allow us to double production within the next 5 years.”
Incorporating the latest manufacturing processes with a focus on sustainability, the new factory will enable Combilift to double its output in a single shift across all production lines. Four 90 metre moving assembly lines produce a finished truck every 15 minute. There are 60 welding bays, two plasma cutting machines, three paint lines which use sustainable water-based paints and three automatic shot blasters to cater for different sized products. 12,000 pallet locations ensure ample storage space for parts and components. The facility also includes a 50-seat cinema training room, 5,000 m² of office space and a dedicated R&D Development and Testing Centre, with a focus on sustainability the facility incorporates a 1Mw Biomass plant fuelled by recycled wood such as pallets and a 185Kw solar plant complementing the 23% of roof space dedicated to skylights allowing the 550 strong workforces to work largely in natural light.
Mass Customisation
Martin McVicar, attributes the company’s impressive growth and its status as an acknowledged world leader in the material handling sector to mass customisation.
“Combilift has set the benchmark for the mass production of customised innovative products. Mass customisation is the new frontier for both the customer and the manufacturer as customers are increasingly expecting products to be tailored to their requirements. We listen to and take feedback on board from our customers and dealers to identify solutions that best match their individual specific needs.”
Combilift invests 7% of its annual turnover in Research and Development to enhance its customisation capability and to maximise ROI for its customers. “The flexibility in our new facility means that we can continue to accommodate any request for a customised material handling solution. We also see ourselves as much more than a forklift manufacturer and are transforming the transport and logistics sector with our innovative, space-spacing products and our services.”
Combilift offers a free logistic and warehouse design service which enables customers to see the benefit that its products will bring to their business. “Our engineers proactively design, plan and produce material flow analysis and 3D animations – 150 to 200 per day for our worldwide customers – which clearly illustrate the capacity potential as well as the optimum flow of materials on their site.” said McVicar.
Growth of Combilift
Established by Martin McVicar, Managing Director and Robert in Moffett, Technical Director, in 1998, Combilift developed the world’s first multidirectional all-wheel drive IC engine powered forklift. In the first year of operation it produced 18 units,17 of which were exported. The company has more than doubled in the last 5 years and now has 40,000 units in operation in over 85 countries.
Combilift’s product portfolio has expanded way beyond its first multidirectional model according to McVicar: “Combilift has always focused on a number of niche market segments and has a proven track record of launching one or two new products annually. In the first 10 years we focussed on the long load material handling sector with the multidirectional range which revolutionised the handling of long materials, allowing customers to handle long products in less space more safely. We are now heavily involved in warehousing, logistics and manufacturing.”