Hill Engineering focus on global growth
New TEFRA product range allows specialist coupler manufacturer to expand into new markets
Following the launch of their TEFRA product range at the beginning of 2011, Hill Engineering have more than doubled their market share on the back of deals with some of the UK’s largest fleet owners.
More than 2,500 couplers have been sold so far for excavators over seven tonnes, with a further boost to sales expected to follow the launch in the spring of TEFRA products for the three-, five- and seven-tonne classes.
The company also appointed Pennsylvania-based Rockland Manufacturing as its new distributor for the US and Canadian markets, and recently shipped its largest ever single order as Rockland build their product stocks.
Operations have grown in numerous European markets, alongside Hill’s traditional markets in the UK and Ireland, with the company delivering its first ever products to Australia and receiving enquiries from potential dealers in China and India.
A major upgrade of Hill Engineering’s steel stockholding capacity has been completed at their Newry factory, in order to improve the efficiency of their production processes and ensure the quality of the raw materials they use, and a parallel upgrade in their IT and admin systems is also now being finalized.
Twenty new engineers have been fully trained and added to Hill’s network of independent service agents to ensure customers are easily able to access support and advice about their products as and when they need to, and a number of new jobs are also expected to be created in the coming months to help manage increasing customer demand.
Hill Engineering will be exhibiting their full TEFRA range in April at both the Intermat trade show in Paris and the ScotPlant event in Edinburgh.
Business development director John Lines believes that the company is set for further significant commercial growth over the coming months: ‘We were always extremely confident that the TEFRA range would be well received, but to have more than doubled our market share in just 12 months is a tremendous achievement, and one which supports the quality and effectiveness of our products.
‘Our TEFRA coupler system is fully automatic, simple to operate and maintain, and compliant with all global manufacturing standards – the success we’ve enjoyed so far suggest that our customers agree with these opinions, and with the imminent launch of the full product range, we’re expecting to see a further boost to sales figures in the coming months.
‘Domestic markets are still very important to our continuing development, but the sales we’re already making overseas and the interest we’re now getting from potentially huge markets like China and India give us great encouragement for the Hill brand’s global expansion. We are also engaged in early stage talks with some of the global equipment manufacturers, which have expressed strong interest in TEFRA.
‘We’ve put new systems in place to ensure we can manage the ever increasing demand for our products, and with the continuing recovery from global recession, we have every confidence that the year to come can be even more commercially successful than the one we’ve just enjoyed.’
