Conor Hegarty, MDS's general manager and business line director, tells Aggregates Business that the Co. Monaghan-based firm has exceeded its trading expectations following its summer 2021 acquisition by Terex.
He explains that MDS, whose product range includes its flagship M515 mobile heavy-duty track trommel, has a healthy plant order book, with works to significantly expand the company’s current 34,000ft² manufacturing facility set to begin later this year.
Hegarty says that MDS is also benefitting from being able to utilise Terex’s Materials Processing (Terex MP) business division’s extensive global dealer network to grow its potential sales market, offering quarry and other industry customers of Terex MP’s Powerscreen, Finlay and other branded crushers and screeners a premium heavy-duty trommel add-on option for their tougher rock and recycling applications.
“We have exceeded our post-acquisition sales and production expectations by 20%. We have done a lot of improvements at our factory site, replacing a lot of old equipment and investing in a new paint shop facility,” says Hegarty. “We’ve also added new dealers in the UK, Ireland, Denmark and other parts of Europe. We took our time in adding them as we had orders we needed to satisfy with our existing dealers.”
Hegarty says that MDS’s manufacturing site expansion includes a new plant assembly hall, with a planning application made to relevant local authorities to build on land adjacent to the current factory. “We expect to break ground by quarter three [2023] and the extended facility to be operational by the start of next year. It will give us an additional 22,000ft² of manufacturing capacity.”
MDS currently offers four mobile and three stationary products. While operating in what he describes as a niche sector of the screening market, Hegarty believes the heavy-duty mobile and stationary trommels market offers promising growth potential. “We are seeing more and more enquiries about our static trommels, our initial product offering before we expanded into mobile machines. All our recent focus has been on our mobile units, but we plan to relaunch our static range this year as we get more manufacturing capacity.”
MDS’s M515 trommel was proudly showcased during the company’s debut appearance at CONEXPO-CON/AGG in Las Vegas, USA (14-18 March). Ideal for creating rock riprap and recovering rocks mixed with clay and other sticky materials, the updated M515 has been redesigned to include new features that improve transport, access, and stockpile heights.
The plant’s 'swing out' engine and cabinet access platform features allow for easier plant maintenance. The M515’s extended fines and mid-product conveyors increase stockpile heights. Additionally, Hegarty notes that the location of the engine has been changed to the side of the unit, enabling customers to fit the unit on smaller bed trailers in North America, lowering customer transport costs.
“Our main markets are North America, the UK, Europe, and Australia – with North America supplying the bulk of customers. Their focus has historically been on the M515, our biggest-selling model. However, we are seeing an uptick in North American interest in some of our smaller models. In Europe, the preference has been for our smaller trommel models. I think that’s because Europe typically has customers involved in more recycling rather than [rock] riprap applications.”
Focusing on how MDS has built up the aftermarket side of its business, Hegarty, a former international sales director of Terex MP’s environmental business, Terex Ecotec, says: “We have invested heavily in it, building it up from what was a very basic offering. We have been able to tap into Terex MP’s after-sales departments and utilise existing dealer help desks, the online warranty portal and the Dungannon-based [replacement] global parts hub. It’s been a seamless transition to move our after-sales function into a much bigger Terex MP after-markets team.”
Asked what heavy-duty and recycling trommel customers can expect to see next, plant-wise, from MDS, Hegarty says: “The revamped M515, with lots of new features, was launched at CONEXPO. We also had a recent plant forum in Chicago with our North American dealers to hear directly from them what their customers were saying about what they’d like to see. Off the back of that, we have a clear roadmap of what we’d like to develop. We will be launching a new M518R in the fourth quarter of this year. That was a product MDS had introduced previously, but we have effectively gone back to the drawing board and redesigned the machine with a lot of improvements.”
Hegarty stresses that the M518R’s redesign ensures easy transportability, power unit maintenance access, and increased stockpile height advantages.
