Cory Jenson and David Hunter are excited about the commercial possibilities for McLanahan in the European quarrying equipment market, a market that has stood up well over the last two-and-a-half years to the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Potential customers looking at what was an already comprehensive range of crushing, screening, washing and bulk materials handling products offered by McLanahan, Eagle Iron Works and its Anaconda Equipment (Anaconda) business now also have the option of investing in crushers, horizontal screens, inclined screens, feeders, and conveyors manufactured by CMB International, McLanahan’s recently acquired family-owned and operated company based in Leicestershire, England.
Established in 1996, CMB International (CMB) has been operated by Martin Brough, Julie Smith and Chris Hall for over 25 years. The company was founded with the goal of offering high-quality service and support to quarries by providing effective on-site plant maintenance and support to help customers get the best possible production from their plant. The firm’s product line is designed to be easily retrofitted into existing plants, and the company supplies a team of field service engineers to offer on-site support.
“The CMB product range fits very well with where we are going,” says Jenson, talking to Aggregates Business on Day 1 of Hillhead 2022. “The company’s cone crusher can eventually be packaged into Anaconda plant, for example, or packaged with complete C&D plants like the one we are supplying for Mick George in England later this year.
“Before the acquisition, we had been working with CMB for a few years on some projects. We liked working with their people. There are two family generations within CMB. The first generation is committed to staying in the business at least until well into next year, and hopefully longer. The younger generation is staying long term. We are also adding to the CMB team to work on cone and screener production.” Jenson continues: “We like acquiring businesses whose key people are engaged and excited. It was the same with Anaconda, and Alistair [Forysth] and Martin [Quinn] are still heading it up [co-managing directors]. It has grown by multiples since we acquired the business, and the business was already growing well beforehand.”
CMB also owns and operates the RubbleCrusher brand, which produces compact crushers that can be mounted on wheels, tracks or a skid and pulled behind a truck. Founded with a focus on supporting the ‘zero waste’ approach to the construction and demolition recycling industry, RubbleCrusher equipment is ideal for small- to medium-sized crushing and recycling projects that help contribute to a circular economy.
“With CMB, we will be building the RubbleCrusher models at the CMB site in Leicestershire, and we will be bringing CMB’s cones and screens to our [McLanahan] Northern Ireland site, where we’ll be doing our wash plants and jaw, impactor and cone crushers,” explains Jenson.
I am curious why McLanahan has chosen 2022 as the year it is looking to significantly increase its European market presence. “We are the biggest [plant manufacturer] in washing, and we have a much broader [quarrying] product range than most of our competitors that you’ll see at this show. We also offer a far wider product size range,” states Jenson. “Some manufacturers are advertising that they can now offer solutions from the feeder to the filter press; we’ve been able to offer that for a long time along with full tailings management solutions, not just a one-choice option. We have overhead beam filter presses, side beam filter presses, centrifuges, and several styles of thickeners. It’s not a one size fits all. We have also been making log washers since the 1800s, when McLanahan invented the log washer, and we have our own foundry, so we can control some of the things that you can’t do when you are waiting on others. Having the in-house product line and the talent to spec out the right solution for customers means it makes sense to be in one of the biggest markets in the world, in UK and mainland Europe.”
Jenson continues: “Specifically, we have chosen the UK to invest in growing sales and our manufacturing base. We are building a new factory for Anaconda in [Ardboe, County Tyrone] in Northern Ireland, and in August McLanahan will be into another new Northern Ireland factory [Eglish, near Dungannon, County Tyrone].
“We have ramped up our support for customers. Between our brands, we now have around 100 employees in the UK. With the CMB acquisition, we have some field service vehicles and personnel in England to give us some additional ability to support our growing customer base. CMB has a good reputation for customer support, doing a lot of screen rebuilds and producing customised screening plant.”
“Anyone within this industry who knows [building materials] washing knows McLanahan,” stresses Hunter. “We have had quite a few people in the UK getting in contact with us, saying, ‘You’re over here now, come and talk to me’. We have great momentum right now, and the CMB acquisition and the Hillhead show will increase it.”
At Hillhead 2022, McLanahan showcased the UltraWASH 6206 for the first time in Europe. The UltraWASH 6206 is capable of being configured to produce up to three clean aggregates and two washed sand products and is part of McLanahan’s complete line of modular systems. These plants are designed to be energy efficient and include patent-pending maintenance features that make performing maintenance safer and simpler. They can also be supplied with a state-of-the-art control system that allows for remote monitoring and adjustments.
McLanahan’s latest tailings management solution, a Decanter Centrifuge, was also on the company’s Hillhead stand. The machine offers an alternative to filter and belt presses, while is said by McLanahan to improve tailings handling, helping to eliminate settlings ponds, improving water recovery and meeting environmental regulations. Already successfully used in the European aggregates industry, McLanahan’s Decanter Centrifuge separates waste material to create a liquid that can be reused as process water and a solids cake that is suitable for mechanical handling.
A McLanahan UltraCRUSH modular cone crusher, along with an Anaconda J12 jaw crusher, which features a McLanahan Universal jaw crusher, were two other notable exhibits on McLanahan’s Hillhead 2023 stand. Anaconda Equipment also showcased its DF514 scalping screen on its exhibition stand.
McLanahan is one of several US quarrying and recycling sector majors increasing their UK and wider European market presence, with Astec Industries and Lippmann also using Hillhead 2022 to highlight their regional growth plans. Do Jenson and Hunter see that trend continuing? “It is natural for any market competitor to see opportunities for growing their business,” says Jenson. “The UK is a great place for American companies to do business. We are able to make high-quality plants for a very competitive price. Our plants fit very well with modular and tracked plant demand, and having a UK manufacturing base is ideal for shipping our products at a competitive price globally.
“When we acquired Anaconda, we decided to invest in the UK as a corporate base for McLanahan. We have operations in Australia, China and Chile, but with Anaconda we had a good segue into the market where we could get a large enough base to capitalise on manufacturing, parts sourcing and employee hiring opportunities. We recruited some key people like David [Hunter], Michael Duffy [Director of Operations] and Dermot Murphy {Director of Engineering, Aggregates Systems] to head up our management team over here. They have great experience and reputations, and people are coming to McLanahan because they are working for us.”
“People in this industry want to ‘see it, smell it, touch it’ [quarrying plant], and they want to talk to the people [making and selling it],” notes Hunter. “In most quarries, you are lucky to get an internet connection! You have to be in front of customers and potential customers.”
Asked whether McLanahan is looking for more UK or mainland Europe acquisitions to assist its global market growth strategy, Jenson says: “We are always looking for the right fit to bring into the family. Since acquiring Anaconda and Eagle Iron Works, for example, we have grown them substantially. We find that acquisitions work well for us as we can accelerate things for new brands by sharing our marketing resources, customer support systems, dealer apps, dealer networks and other kinds of support that a major corporation can give.”
Hunter adds: “Even this morning speaking to some of the Anaconda employees, they have already got some potential customers lined up for CMB’s RubbleCrusher. It is opening up commercial opportunities for RubbleCrusher and new space for McLanahan to get into.”
Jenson says that he and the rest of the senior McLanahan management team have been impressed with the work of Liam Holland, RubbleCrusher Business Line Director, and Matthew Brough, RubbleCrusher Technical Director. “They have done really well with the RubbleCrusher, and now they can go full speed with those at CMB’s Leicestershire factory without having to worry about also manufacture CBM cone crushers and screeners at the same site. Those plants will now be manufactured at our Northern Ireland facilities.
“The RubbleCrusher plants are smaller crusher contractor units that fit very well underneath the size of the Anaconda equipment product lines.”
Turning his attention to McLanahan’s longstanding sustainability efforts, Jenson says: “I actually started work at McLanahan back in 2009 because of the company’s environmental focus. My first job was Product Manager for McLanahan’s tailings management business. Tailings management allows you to get rid of settling ponds, and with our thickeners, centrifuges, and filter presses, we are recycling billions on billions of gallons of water. It is crazy when you add it up. One year for CONEXPO, we worked out how much water we were recycling with all our machines, and the amount was amazing! When talking of sustainability, the fact that we can test material and say to a customer, ‘Do you really need a log washer? Perhaps you’d be better off with an aggregate conditioner or a coarse material washer or a rotary scrubber?’, means that we can give them the right equipment, rather than the only equipment we have. This is good for sustainability and saves many kilowatts of power, which also helps site operators keep their costs down.”
Jenson stresses that Anaconda machines are also involved in a lot of recycling applications and notes that the RubbleCrusher is good for crushing recycled material on-site and using it as base material. “A lot of local authorities in countries do not want you to demolish a building and then take the C&D material off-site,” he highlights.
“The C&D recycling market is quite a big thing in the UK and on a wider basis in Europe,” adds Hunter. “McLanahan has some of the best C&D waste processing experts in the industry, so coupling that with our engineering and product means that we can offer customers something that others don’t.”
Just before we break off to allow me to take pictures of Jenson and Hunter by some of McLanahan’s Hillhead stand line-up, Jenson says: “We see a lot of opportunities ahead of us here, and we are committed to investing and further growing our presence in Europe to become an industry reference like we are in the US. If you operate plant in the UK and Europe and haven’t yet experienced what our 187 years of industry-leading solutions can deliver for you, now is the time.”
