Haulmark Trailers is confident its new Adelaide manufacturing facility will help it better serve its southern client base as it eyes future expansions.
After 56 years of operating from its Brisbane base, Haulmark Trailers’ decision to open a new manufacturing facility in Adelaide comes from a desire to serve what has grown to be a substantial client base in Australia’s southern states.
Founded in 1963 in Brisbane, the company has a strong heritage in developing multi-combination vehicles for the mining and resources and pastoral industries – which the company says has seen it enjoy a strong showing in northern Australia.
Haulmark’s national sales and marketing manager Mark Johnston says the Adelaide base will help to service the Haulmark assets that have made their way to the south of the country.
“They seem to get there by second or third ownership – it is not new going in there… so having the facility in Adelaide gives us a good opportunity to provide a service to our existing client base that is through that part of the world,” Johnston says.
“I’m not declaring war on any competitors. We have got a well-established Haulmark client base in that location already, and this gives us a good opportunity to provide a good service for them and to grow that client base from there.
“We will manufacture equipment, we will repair and modify existing equipment and we will have an extensive range of spare parts for the transport industry.”
Opened last week in the Adelaide suburb of Edinburgh, the 21,000 square metre site features 3,000sqm of workshop floor space and another 1,000sqm space for a spare parts facility and showroom.
Read how Haulmark teamed up with SEQ Hauliers for a QTA award, here
Included in the new facility are two 18m Hartex integrated pits with inbuilt jacking systems, complete with oil and grease recovery systems and an air circulation system with roller shutter covers.
One of those pits has a VLT shaker and brake roller tester built in, enabling Haulmark to carry out brake testing and other certification procedures on-site.
It also boasts two 20 tonne overhead cranes which Johnston says will help the company in its future manufacturing pursuits – with the company starting out by building side tippers at the Adelaide plant.
“We will be doing that range of things – side tippers, skell trailers, flat tops, drop decks and then we will re-evaluate from there to make sure we are catering for the market,” he says.
“There are micro industries within a bigger industry, and I think with our exposure in SA and the southern market, that will give us some opportunities to evaluate some new products and add to the current Haulmark fleet.”
Johnston says the company is excited about its future, saying the transport task in the company’s focus areas continues to grow.
“You don’t build a facility like that to have it half empty,” he adds.
“The intent is to get that facility operating at its best efficiencies, which will be reflected by what is happening in and around the industry over the next few years, which I think is all looking quite positive.”
“The thing we have to be mindful of is that we can’t build everything for everybody – we have to pick the markets that are appropriate for us and what our strengths are.
“We have got a good start to work with on our current range of products, but we will be looking to strategically add to that range because although we are very well known in the north, the market in the south is different, and there are probably some opportunities for us to evaluate some new products.”
Store from: https://www.ownerdriver.com.au/product-news/1903/haulmark-trailers-bolsters-its-southern-exposure