Molson Group Open Day

14 December, 2021

First published in the December 2021 issue of Quarry Management as Raising the Bar

Molson Group highlight their single-source supply capabilities during a series of open days at their Avonmouth depot and headquarters

Operating out of 13 strategic locations across the UK, Molson Group are the country’s largest independent dealer of new and used equipment. With an ever-growing portfolio of OEM suppliers, the company aims to provide clients of all sizes with a single-source product supply option for the construction, quarrying, demolition, and recycling sectors, backed up by a team of around 80 fully trained mobile service engineers and a parts stockholding worth more than £5 million.

Founded in 1996 by Jonathan Wilson and Robin Powell, the business has flourished and grown year on year, and by 2019 (the last full financial year before the Covid pandemic) achieved a turnover of £214 million. Today, Molson are one of the largest suppliers of Japanese (Kobelco) and Korean (Hyundai) excavators in Europe and continue to grow their product portfolio with carefully selected manufacturer partners. The product range currently includes mobile crushers, screeners, and conveyors, wheel loaders, articulated dumptrucks, and a wide range of mobile plant attachments, along with many other material processing and handling plant and equipment solutions.

The ongoing expansion of new and existing service locations has been another factor in the company’s success and one which has helped place it in a strong position to cope with both current and future industry demands. Over the last two years Molson Group invested more than £3 million in an extensive redevelopment of their Avonmouth headquarters and depot, creating 1,950m2 of additional workshop space with an additional 10 service bays and an overhead gantry crane, along with after-sales warranty, delivery, and customized paintwork and signwriting facilities.

Keen to show off these new state-of-the-art, purpose-built service facilities, along with their Technology Centre and the latest additions to their 360° product portfolio, Molson recently hosted a series of open days (12–14 October) at their Avonmouth site, where they welcomed several hundred customers, suppliers, and members of the construction press. At the event, virtually the entire yard area of the 8-acre facility was occupied with static displays of plant and equipment, including a large array of Kobelco and Hyundai excavators, a broad selection of Terex Finlay crushers and screens, along with smaller displays of Hyundai wheel loaders, Hydrema dumptrucks, EvoQuip compact crushers and screens, and the new AggReclaim wash plant, among various other well-known machinery brands and product lines.

Attachments were also well represented with a wide range of buckets, hitches, hammers, shears, pulverizers etc on display from leading manufacturers such as SMP, NPK, MB, Daemo, and Genesis, whilst a number of ‘guest spots’ were occupied by companies such as Geith and Strickland MFG.

But perhaps the most notable highlight of the three-day event was the appearance of the new Rokbak articulated haulers. As Rokbak dealers for Great Britain, Molson Group presented the 28-tonne payload RA30 and 38-tonne payload RA40 trucks on static display in their yard, and also laid on visits to see a live demonstration of the RA30 at a local quarry.

Kenny Price, Rokbak’s regional sales manager for Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Russia, said: ‘As the launch of the new brand took place virtually, for many UK customers, this was their first opportunity to catch a glimpse of the haulers in person – and they were not disappointed. The striking new name and colour are hard to miss, whilst the hefty build embodies Rokbak’s commitment to never letting a customer down. The feedback from customers and dealers so far has been absolutely incredible – we couldn’t be happier with the support we’ve received.’

Within the Avonmouth Tech Centre, open day visitors were able to gain an insight into Molson’s new service portal, which is currently under development and due to be launched next year. The system will amalgamate telematics data from proprietary OEM systems, to provide consolidated daily fleet-management information at both fleet and individual machine level, giving users valuable insights into operational performance and maintenance status. The system will also link in with Molson’s new-commerce feature for spare parts, which will allow users to zoom into online catalogues and exploded drawings of all machines, facilitating the easy identification and ordering of individually numbered parts and components.

Fleet safety and efficiency system specialists FTC Group were also on hand in the Technology Centre to demonstrate their Pedestrian Detection Camera, which uses an algorithm to distinguish between moving and static objects and pedestrians (with no need for tags) and alert the operator to the presence of potential hazards. The robust system can provide coverage ranging from rear view only up to full 360° and has a detection range of up to 20m.

Molson Group’s joint managing director Robin Powell said: ‘Whilst the current climate continues to be challenging for many businesses, we are committed to developing our service and product range to raise the bar in the industry and I’m looking forward to continuing to drive the change we need in order to be a more valuable supplier to our customers.’