Construction Plant News visits the new home of a very well established name in the road building and repair business
Few construction machinery manufacturers can boast the kind of domination of a market that Wirtgen Group can, but that doesn’t mean that this is a company that’s about to get complacent. Indeed, new developments in the machines themselves, and some innovative thinking in after sales and customer support, points to an organisation that’s determined to remain at the pinnacle of its sector. Fresh impetus has also been injected with a change of ownership, with the two sons of the founder selling to John Deere in December of 2017, and Wirtgen Group is now part of that American firm’s construction and forestry division
From a backyard business to multi-national conglomerate, it was the eponymous Reinhard Wirtgen who first hit the road in 1961, initially with a small contracting business, which would subsequently evolve into a company specialising in road construction machinery. Through a process of acquisition, the Vogele range of pavers were added, who now join the Wirtgen brand as world leaders in their field, a journey that another of the Group’s brands, Hamm has also now completed.
The UK roller market is actually the largest in Europe, and is dominated by rental. Wirtgen’s position as the major supplier to the likes of GAP and A-Plant puts them at the very forefront of a class of machinery where availability and reliability are king. It’s about having one when you want one, and Wirtgen holds significant stocks of the units to keep the hire companies and their customers serviced with these rental spec solutions.
Ten years ago the Kleemann crushing and screening business was added to the portfolio, and has since been transformed from a maker of static machinery into mobile solutions, whilst the newest member of the family is the Benninghoven asphalt mixing plant company.
Consider all of those names as a homogenous whole and what you have is a complete solution for road construction and repair, from making the aggregate, to processing it in an asphalt plant, laying it through a paver, and compacting it. The circle of construction and recycling is then completed by Wirtgen’s milling machines, which can dig the material back up again and restart the process.
Since June of 2018 Wirtgen UK has been headquarted in an impressive new £12 million, 10 acre facility just off the A1 in Newark. “When I joined in 2013 the company had 60 employees in this country and a turnover of approximately £34 million,” explains MD, Paul Holmes. “This year, we are 120 people and over £100 million in turnover. That performance is primarily thanks to our market-leading positions in Vogele, Wirtgen and Hamm, whilst there is real potential for growth with Kleemann.”
Indeed, when it comes to a number of its brands, increasing the available market share would be very difficult, but Kleemann has just that opportunity, with an ambition to achieve a market leading position in this class of machinery. What Kleemann can now provide is a well-established range of jaw and impact crushers, driven by a diesel/electric powertrain that can deliver significant fuel savings. With the demands of legislation waste and recycling will undoubtedly see continued growth – a market which has traditionally been dominated by jaw crushers. Where Wirtgen differentiates from its competition is in introducing impact units to operators in the sector. “The efficiency and the cost per tonne is far higher with impact crushers,” explains Paul, “but the operator needs to be better trained because putting uncrushable material into an impact machine can be costly. That’s why we’ve worked very closely with demolition contractors to educate them on the best way to introduce impact models into their processes and offer training either at Newark or in the field.
“Again, it’s an example of supporting the customer not just with the machine but with the people, and we’ll spend a lot of time with the client ensuring that they get the best out of any of the machines we sell. In order to make sure that end users were comfortable with Kleemann’s Diesel/electric powertrain, for instance, we developed a course with CITB to ensure that operators would be fully proficient.”
That’s an ethos that extends throughout the business, as Paul explains: “A lot of Wirtgen Group’s customers in the milling area are privately owned companies that specialise in that particular space, and for them I believe that we still feel like a family business. Not only that but many milling customers might diversify into paving, compaction or crushing and screening, and we can support them on that journey because we have all of the solutions, and are the recognised experts in the industry. At the same time, the major players may well own all five of our product brands, and that is undoubtedly a major reason for our success – operators of machinery can source everything they need for a highways job from one point of contact.”
So just what are the prospects for the road building and repair market in the years ahead? Despite repeated announcements of some quite eye watering numbers from our political masters in Whitehall, Paul Holmes reports that the market has proven to be rather flat of late, but that’s a position that could change very quickly. “The government initially has put £17 billion at the disposal of Highways England for improvements between 2015 and 2021, and a further £29 billion will be added for the next phase. That’s a sizeable investment, which leaves the UK infrastructure market in good health, but with some of the political uncertainties we have experienced of late it would be fair to say there might be a pause on some projects.”
Of course, all of that money is ultimately derived from the taxpayer, which puts unique pressures on the contractor charged with realising the improvements. Highways England wants its supply chain to provide the best value for money possible, and minimise disruption to the road user with the most efficient delivery programme. Network availability is always at a premium and those fleets of planers and pavers need to get on and off the road network as quickly as they can. Realistically, machines will only have a three hour window through the night in which to operate, which equates to approximately 300 tonnes of material, which is why operators will inevitably invest in a brand they can trust.
Fleet managers will be all too aware that obtaining the machine is often the easy part of the process, but finding the operator with the necessary skill-set is more problematic, but here again Wirtgen is poised to support its customers. “One of the rationales for the major investment in our new head office was to expand our training facilities,” declares Paul, “and we have training rooms that can deliver theory and technical instruction, complemented by a practical area where operators can get hands on with equipment. We now have two full time trainers on our books and can deliver one or two courses a week.”
“In our business it can’t just be about the machine,” continues Paul. “Wirtgen differs from many of the other manufacturers in the construction plant sector in that our equipment produces a product in the form of a road. That makes the interaction between man, machine and materials crucial in delivering a highway that is fit for purpose, and that’s why we’re supplying not just a machine but an individual that understands the whole process. We’ve worked very closely with CITB and the MPQC (Mineral Products Qualifications Council) to develop training standards, and it’s one of our core strengths. No other manufacturer supplies milling training in the UK, for instance, which means if they’re using any other brand then they’re effectively learning on the job.”
Every Bauma is the birthplace of a host of industry innovations and Wirtgen will occupy the second largest stand at the world’s biggest trade fair. It will be there that the construction plant community will be introduced to its new range of 2metre milling machines, whilst Vogele will be unveiling a smaller paver in the compact class aimed at the rental business, but it’s not just the models that will be new in 2019. In initiatives that reflect the commitment to the customer that the automotive sector has perfected, Wirtgen Group will be supplying used machines to the market, with equipment that has been stripped and rebuilt to an approved standard, bringing new customers into the brand at a lower rate. “That’s a service we are able to provide precisely because of these new premises,” continues Paul, “and the increased workshop capacity it gives us. Similarly, we are the only company that can provide a courtesy paver to our clients to keep them working while their own machines are being serviced or repaired.”
With the potential to expand still further Wirtgen’s new head office is a reflection of its operation. It is a space that supports not just machines but the development of people. “We want to help our customers to grow,” concludes Paul, “and that’s why we focus on not just the equipment but everything that supports its operation.”
