Aggregate Industries to partner with Siemens
Strategic partnership worth more than £2 million to help improve productivity and energy consumption
AGGREGATE Industries and Siemens have this week announced a landmark strategic partnership that will see more than £2 million invested in cutting-edge industrial technologies, equipment and support, with the objective of helping the aggregates business improve its productivity and energy consumption, and reduce its environmental impact.
The deal, which lasts until September 2015, will also see Siemens undertake a comprehensive energy and drivetrain review for 250 of Aggregate Industries’ sites. This will run alongside the installation of technologies to help reduce the company’s energy consumption.
In addition, as part of the partnership, Siemens will invest £10,000 to support Aggregate Industries’ apprenticeship programme in a joint venture with Stephenson’s College in Leicestershire. This investment means apprentices will be trained on equipment at the college that is the same as the equipment installed at Aggregate Industries’ sites.
The strategic partnership signed this month will focus on three core areas: drivetrain technologies (industrial motors for quarries, asphalt and building materials sites); automation solutions (control room systems); and process instrumentation (for measuring weight, level and flow).
The commercial partnership will also offer Aggregate Industries scaled rebates on all purchases made with Siemens, who will provide a complete turnkey solution with design, installation, commissioning and validation all overseen by professional project management to maximize the success of the UK-wide programme.
Siemens Industry’s aggregates and minerals specialist, Robert Thrower, commented: ‘This deal provides economies of scale that will deliver significant cost savings to Aggregate Industries. Siemens’ reliability will increase overall equipment effectiveness and ensure consistency of supply, meaning less downtime and more productivity.’
Aggregate Industries – who in 2009 were the first company in their sector to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard across all of their UK operations – have maintained a long-standing commitment to reduce their energy consumption. This includes reducing their risk and exposure to unsustainable fossil fuels, and reducing the embodied CO2 impact of their products.
The company is currently going through an ambitious renewable-energy programme to reduce its carbon output and a number of other Siemens businesses are also now engaging with Aggregate Industries, including Wind Turbine and Traffic Management teams.
Gerard Cantwell from Aggregate Industries (left in picture) said: ‘Our technology partnership with Siemens will put us at the cutting edge of the UK minerals market, allowing us to improve our cost base and boost productivity – so we can serve a rapidly recovering economy.
‘We are also investing in the future of young people through our apprenticeship scheme because, as a business, we’re committed to developing our employees and giving back to those communities we work in – and this is a great opportunity to do both at the same time.
‘By investing in energy reduction we are killing two birds with one stone – reducing costs and building on our commitment to reduce carbon consumption in a traditionally heavy-consumption industry.’
