Combilift celebrate its 20 years with the opening of a new facility
Under the typical Irish weather, Combilift has officially opened its new global headquarter and manufacturing facility in Monaghan. Many people were present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony: from the Irish Prime Minister An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, to the employees and business partners of Combilift, up to arrive to a strong team of media and journalists from all over the world.
Thursday 26th is the date of this new begin, in the foreground there is the new building: the Global Headquarters is 46.500 sq. m, built at a cost of 50€ million. Forklift manufacturer and material handing solutions provider celebrate this year its 20th anniversary, with the official opening. It was also announced that it will be significantly expanding its workforce with the creation of 200 new jobs in next years “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 five years” announced the Managing Director Martin McVicar.
The Irish Prime Minister An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar TD said: “Combilift is an incredible home-grown Monaghan 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. Combilift is playing a significant role in Monaghan’s success, and I would like to congratulate Robert Moffett and Martin McVicar and everyone at Combilift on their achievements to date and wish them every success for the future.”
The company was born in 1998 by Martin McVicar, Managing Director and Robert Moffet, Thechinal director. Currently Combilift exports 98% of its products to 85 countries through its 250-strong international dealer network. Combilift is a great example of the business concept for the all the Ireland republic. “Monaghan is a small reality that recives with particular favor the industrials coming from Combilift, fundamental for the economy of our entire country” – said the Minister for Business, Enterprise, and Innovation Heather Humphrey – “This is the demonstration of the fact that to work in a large industry it is not necessary to live in a big city”.
For the company is critical invest a large part of money in research and development: seven percent of the company’s revenue is invested in. “As a company, Combilift has always focused on a number of niche market segments and has a proven track record of launching one to two new products annually” – McVicar said – “We work closely with our costumers and dealers to identify solutions that best match their individual specific needs”. New factory is a clear example of innovation, efficiency and technology, also incorporating the latest manufacturing processes with a focus on sustainability. This enables to double Combilift output in a single shift across all production lines, four 90 meter moving assembly lines produce a finished truck every 15 minutes.
During the day Martin and his staff have presented also some new machineries. Regular forklift was their first machine, with the continuous of the year they concentrate at this for growing and innovate. In the Combilift family there is the new “Combi-cs” it can move in a very small area, carrying out complex operations and maneuvers without the need of one person behind a specific area. Pedestrian products were introduced into the range in the last five years, enabling Combilift to gain a foothold in this growing market. The Combi-WR, Combi-WR4 and the Combi-CS all incorporate Combilift’s unique patented multi-positional tiller arm technology. “There is a growing demand for pedestrian trucks, driven by safety concerns where customers and/or employees are in the vicinity of operating forklifts,” said McVicar. “It is our intention to significantly expand this range, as can be seen with the launch of the new high lift capacity Combilift Powered Pallet Truck (Combi-HC-PPT).”
For the future, we invest in new production markets, the so-called emerging countries: India, South Arabia, Colombia. Despite the satisfaction of being present in 85 countries around the world, the Combilift line is obviously continuing to grow and enrich the customer portfolio. Mr. McVicar concludes the press conference with further reference to the future and the growing e-commerce and 4.0 industry. “The e-commerce world does not scare us until someone has warehouses in which it becomes necessary to move things, the same for the industry 4.0, we are moving in these directions and we see at these as a great challenge to continue to grow innovating and improving our products.”