Take a look at the latest Pirtek In the Pipeline Magazine featuring a focus on our centres in Ireland, the investments made in our brand awareness via sponsorship, and much more....
THE PIRTEK MAGAZINE QUARTER ONE – 2019
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INTHE PIPELINE M A G A Z I N E
INSIDE THIS ISSUE...
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Contents
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Limerick Service at the welding station
Burton Mining force
Waterford Super Plastic Forming
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Pirtek UK and Ireland Connacht Rugby
The Sportsground
Bristol Cleaning up
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Thurrock Lee Tubb’s journey
Pirtek Racing
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With Pirtek celebrating its thirtieth anniversary in the UK in 2018, it’s been a good year for the company. We celebrated this anniversary on the beautiful west coast of Scotland at last year’s conference and this was a great opportunity for franchisees and suppliers to renew their acquaintances and share best practice. These meetings ensure Pirtek franchises continue to be dynamic in their development of new services. Preparations for our 2019 conference are now well underway and we look forward to seeing you on the 26th/27th April at Powerscourt In County Wicklow, Ireland. Lee Tubb at Pirtek Thurrock has a truly inspiring story in this issue, explaining how he took on a franchise with some issues, not least finding technicians capable of providing Pirtek’s unrivalled quality of service. Over the five years since taking over, Lee has steadied the ship and developed new business in the face of the challenges of competition and economic factors, while developing a team of skilled Pirtek trained MSSTs.
Happy new year
There’s further innovation in Ireland, with Pirtek Limerick investing to manufacture flexible metallics hose assemblies. Limerick has added a new facility, including the construction
of a rotary welding station that allows them to fuse hoses with ferrules with a regularity that approaches the uniformity of a machine weld. They have also created a bespoke database specifically for Total Hose Management and preventative maintenance. This allows customers,
‘Pirtek franchises continue to be dynamic’
engineers and the office to access the database and for MSSTs to manage the performance of their customer’s hoses and improve operation efficiency.
We explore the value of sponsorship with Pirtek Galway and Connacht Rugby. The club has recently announced its redevelopment plans for the Sportsground, providing an even greater audience for Pirtek’s banners and logos on the team’s kit. In the international PRO14 tournament and in other competitions broadcast around the world, Pirtek is getting great exposure. We also cover how Pirtek Bristol has helped Whirlpool achieve great improvements in efficiency and working environment at its factory near the city through ongoing preventative maintenance. The company is delighted with the results and foresees a long term relationship with Pirtek.
Here’s to continuous progress in 2019.
Chris Stuckey Managing Director c
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“You might have an inspection on those hoses in three years, two years, a month’s time or whatever. It’ll give a date for when the hose needs to be replaced. When it’s replaced or a new hose is made up, it’s tagged, tested and then installed. “This means that the following year, the customer will know roughly what their spend will be. This projection will only get more accurate with the incremental buildup of data. “Eventually, they can say, ‘We’re going to be spending this amount of time and money on our hoses this year,’” says Michael.
Limerick – Total Hose Management
With Pirtek Limerick’s move into metallic hoses, testing and certifying hoses was a natural step. Working alongside its sister franchise in Galway, it has been testing hoses for a number of years now and this all ties in with preventative maintenance and Pirtek’s Total Hose Management. “We started with a blue chip customer that started looking for metallic hoses and ordinary hydraulic hoses to be certified and tested for their Total Hose Management system,” says Michael Fogarty, joint franchisee of Pirtek Limerick. He details how Total Hose Management works. “You might have a customer with 40 hoses. You could do them in a year, in a month or whatever the case may be. “First of all, we send them a date for site inspection so they can provide us with access permits. We come to site and make the report of our findings. We will give our idea of what needs to be done and when. “If they want us to take charge, manage their hoses and make sure everything is 100 per cent safe and transparent – that is Total Hose Management. “It’s done in sections, one to five for example. You would split the plant into five areas so section one might be 2019. We would go along in January 2019 and inspect all those hoses. If there was a damaged hose, if it needed to be tested or if they’d stipulated that they wanted all those hoses tested, we’d break it up
into month by month. We’d do a certain number one month, a certain amount the next month and the month after for that year. All the hoses are tested, certified and inspected so that’ll automatically project onto when the customer stipulates they want them inspected again.
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Big data Total Hose Management is a data
“This means that if a hose fails, customers can pull up the data for that hose and see everything there is to know about it. “They know everything from its ‘date of birth’ to its inspections, to when it was changed out. They know what’s been done and what’s coming up in the future. It’s a very detailed data driven system, all about traceability,” says Michael. “It’s like building Lego,” he says. “You put your first row of blocks down, you can’t put your second row down until you’ve done the first. It’s step by step. You can’t really manage it any other way.” Total Hose Management is an ongoing preventative maintenance programme. “It’s not something you can stand back from for a long time. You have to keep
topping it up. That takes a bit of time and input but once you’re running, it’s easy to keep it ticking over.” Total Hose Management can bring hydraulics users back from the brink. “If the customer has a situation that has got so bad that they are being pulled up on it, maybe by management or health and safety, they know they need a solution,” says Michael. “You’re hoping they will have heard of Pirtek and Total Hose Management. Our guys will come in, give a step by step assessment and sell THM to them. “Hose management is a real problem, just like a burst hose,” he says. “If a service is good enough, people will see the benefits and buy into it.”
driven system and Pirtek Limerick has a bespoke database to drive it. “The system will only ever be as good as what you put into it,” says Michael. “We save the data to a file while we’re on site, including hoses’ inspection and change dates. That’ll automatically give us the next inspection date. “Instead of writing the data on a piece of paper, going back to the office to enter and then upload it, you’re typing it in as you go. “When you leave the site you upload it to the bespoke database as soon as you have a connection. Customers can then log on and see the data themselves.
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Even though the system is fully up and running, the franchise sees it as in continuous development. Amanda explains, “Eventually we want to have an RFID tag (Radio Frequency Identification) facility so you can be on site and automatically upload data. We’re not there quite yet, but we will be. “The hoses have a tag colour so that will indicate whether they need to be changed every year, two years or five years or inspected annually, every two years and so on. The tag colour indicates all the information about that hose. “It gives us the type of hose, its location, each end, length, the pressure rating, manufacture date, last inspection date, when it’s due for inspection again and when it’s due to be changed.” The system allows the engineer to filter by whatever data set he wants – hose colour, tag colour or others. “For site visits, if for example we visit this customer twice, three times a year, we can see whatever’s due for inspection within the next four to six months. “We export them to Excel so the engineer can bring them to site. This is where RFID data tags would be very useful because it would automatically upload the data. At the moment we have to manually add it. So we then update all of these fields and the engineer comes back with his lists. It could be 100 hoses, it could be 500 hoses. So he has his list and we create a site visit entry.” The system is easy to use but as with many such things, a lot of work has gone in to make it that way.
Pirtek Limerick’s bespoke database
DATA: Amanda O’Donovan
Amanda O’Donovan is responsible for the bespoke database at Pirtek Limerick. She has experience of databases from the most basic searchable Excel spreadsheets to more powerful Microsoft Access files with customised front ends. Now Pirtek Limerick has developed its own system, optimised for its employees and Total Hose Management customers to access online via the cloud. “Our bespoke online cloud database is designed for Total Hose Management, with staff and customer logins,” Amanda
says. “It functions much like an Access database, but with the benefit of everybody being able to use it.”
As with the best systems, its simple front end belies a deeper complexity.
“It looks very simple,” she says, “but it took a long time to reach this point because there are a lot of design factors and decisions to be made. You have to decide exactly what fields you want the database to have and all the other functions.”
Amanda continues, “The customer can see who is going to be on site, the van’s
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registration number, how long the site visit is going to take.
“They can generate a pre-site visit report, so the hose data will be on this site visit; they can pull their pre-site visit report and check what hoses we’re going to be inspecting on the day. “The engineer goes up, does his inspections, changes the dates; we update the database and afterwards, the pre-site visit report is generated automatically as a pdf. Then they can save the pdfs for each site visit if they want. They have continuous access to the system regardless. “It gives all the information on which hoses are going to be inspected or changed out. Once it’s updated, you get the post-site visit report, which gives you the information about what was changed, what was inspected, etc.” Pirtek Limerick has been developing the system for some time. “We’ve been using our bespoke database for two or three years now, says Amanda. “Initially, we just had an Access database. They took it and put a front face on it to make it look a little more professional. After that, we graduated to this and the data was transferred across. “We can edit whatever we want now. Because it’s cloud based, I can just click to add a new hose. I select the criteria – tag colour, hose type, whatever. It’s very simple, certainly much easier than going through an Access database. “I won’t knock it because I used to love Access. This is just the next step up,” Amanda concludes. “We started with an Excel sheet, not even an actual database. We went from Excel to a basic Access database, to one with a bespoke front end and now to our own cloud-based system.”
‘You’ll be hoping the customer notices – we all like shiny things’
WELD: Pirtek Limerick Franchisee, Michael Fogarty
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At the welding station
To enable Pirtek Limerick’s diversification into flexible metallic hoses, Michael Fogarty has created a bespoke TIG welding station to allow more precise welding of ferrules to the hoses. The contraption looks something like a steampunk belt drive turntable in a minimalist DJ booth. With Michael at the controls, wearing his welding mask and overalls, the appearance is striking to say the least. “The welding station is used when we’re fabricating our fittings onto the flexible metallics,” he says. “We’re trying to bring our welds as close as possible to automated orbital welding, in which the only human input would be to type in the size of the weld on a PC. This is a mixture of automation and human intervention.” What would equate to the platter on a record player, is actually a belt-driven flat ring, with three adjustable rods clamping the metallic hose in the centre. To take the analogy further, when fixed in place the hose looks rather like the spindle at the centre of a hi-fi turntable. “We cut the assembly to length, crimp the ferrules on either end and clamp the assembly into the turntable.” Michael says. “The turntable and thus the hose is operated by a foot pedal and it turns steadily in a clockwise direction,” he
says. “You have two armrests for stability. The left hand is for your filler wire and the right hand for the torch.” “You strike your arc and the hose turns while your hands remain still,” Michael says, “which eliminates shaking hands or anything like that, keeping the weld as close to a machine weld as possible. “With a ferrule attached at one end, turn the hose around, repeat the steps and the hose assembly is completed. “Once the hose is made, you’re back to testing to whatever the customer stipulates – nitrogen or water. Normally with metal metallics it would be a 10 bar pressure test.
“Once we know that the hose isn’t leaking, it’s time to clean and polish it up to make it presentable,” Michael says. “We go off to our belt sander to clean up the edge of the ferrules and then the polishing machines to finish things off. We can start off with 40 grit and go up to a 120 grit finish. That polishes it off smooth. We can even take it up to a mirror finish if a customer stipulates.”
This makes it possible to imprint the Pirtek logo and a part number on the assembly.
“When the customer takes the packaging off, it looks professional, it looks the part but most of all, it works,” says Michael. “You’ll be hoping the customer does notice. We all like shiny things.”
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Waterford – Super Plastic Forming
Autolaunch is a company based outside Waterford that makes body panels for high end car manufacturers using an advanced moulding process. The company was founded by Ed and Mick Hickey in 2002 when they returned from working for automotive supplier, Magna in Canada.
“We were primarily a tool shop so we made dies for customers in the car industry and even some aeroplane parts,” says Maintenance Manager at the company’s Carlow plant, Conor McCarney.
over and we’d try out parts. They’d be happy with it and the die would be shipped to their company – our guys would go with it and set it up in the customer’s press and repeat the process.” Ed Hickey wanted to get into production and the company chose a process called SPF – Super Plastic Forming, where
“We’d bid for a project, win a contract and make a die. The customer would come
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aluminium panels are heated to a point where they behave like plastic.
SPF forming for Aston Martin, McLaren, Mercedes, BMW and Porsche. There are numerous other customers that are very interested but we’re at full capacity at the moment so we’re actually turning customers away.” “There’s only been one year in the company’s history that there hasn’t been building taking place,” Conor says. “They’ve just finished one extension,
they’re about to start another for office space and then they’re looking for funding for two further projects after that. “We’re always trying to improve,” he says. “We started making one-off parts and got our times as fast as we could to increase productivity. We went to two-out parts out of the one die and we’re now looking at our first four-out part, which would be four panels out of
While the process has been around for a number of years, Autolaunch are world leaders in it. “We are the ones that have the furthest development in it,” says Conor. “There are others trying to get into it but we have perfected it. “We had five years of developing the process and now we know where we are, we know what we
need to make and we know how to make it,” says Conor.
“SPF allows us to do a lot more
than conventional processes would do,” he continues. “It is similar to hot forming but we can make far sharper angles and far bigger curves. It avoids or reduces splitting, tinning or deformation. This makes the parts stronger while using aluminium makes the car lighter. The customers like that, so much so that some manufacturers have sent over their entire design teams to see what we can do so they can incorporate that into future designs. “It’s a very expensive process and therefore it’s only the high-end vehicle manufacturers that we work with,” Conor says. “We do
PRESS: Super Plastic Formed aluminium panels
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one die.” The process has also changed, he says. “Back then we would have had two-part dies and now we have three part dies, which gives us different movement to make and form the panels.” Working together Conor McCarney has worked directly for the Autolaunch for six years, having been a contractor installing the machinery before that. He brought Pirtek on board around five years ago, he says. “We were having some hose issues,” says Conor, “and being a good salesman, John Laffan walked in on the right day. “So we changed over to their hoses, which were of a far higher quality, meaning we had less failure. We’ve been using them ever since. The quality is good and the service is too. Other hydraulic companies I deal with couldn’t provide 24 hour service and we are a 24 hours, seven days a week plant. This 24/7 service is one of Pirtek’s key selling points. At Autolaunch, Pirtek hoses up the circuits on the presses and on the dies. Conor says, “We keep spare hoses in stock and Pirtek’s MSST, Mark, calls in on a regular basis and makes sure our stock is full. “There haven’t been many issues with the hoses. They are inspected for wear on a regular basis and we change them as required. “We hold the specific stock of hoses just for here in the depot in Waterford,” says John Laffan, Sales Manager at Pirtek Waterford, “and they’re held in Mark’s van as well because of the 24 hour service he provides.
‘Above and beyond’ service and excellent interpersonal relationships characterise
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Moving places Just a few months ago, Pirtek Waterford was in small and quite confined premises that were difficult to find and had little parking space. So the franchise planned to move into somewhere bigger, easier to find and with better access. The new centre was eight or nine months in the offing, from initial consideration to making the decision to move, acquiring the property and fitting it out from the ground up.
Pirtek’s relationship with Autolaunch, explains John. “Mark lives in Carlow, which is not too far, so even if it is two or three in the morning he will always come over with the hose, even when he’s not on call.” Pirtek is supporting Autolaunch in supporting the local economy. “We employ about 430 people but that’s continually on the up,” says Conor. “It’s a very skilled local workforce but very specific to what they do.”
The idea of moving developed during 2017 and the decision was made by franchisees Greg Cummins and Mike Cairney in the middle of that year, with input from the centre managers. “The biggest factor was access to the location and then the size of the building,” says Centre Manager, Peter Macer. “Once the decision had been made and the property acquired, planning and laying out the building took about two months,” he says.
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“It was an empty shell so we got to make everything to our own specification. The layout is our own and it is working very well. We have room to expand here, which was also a very important consideration.” For a dirty business, the new Waterford centre is a very clean environment. “Our aim is to keep it that way,” says Peter. “The floor is all painted and the offices are carpeted, which is a bit of a difference from some other places.”
“The centre has a light and airy feel, giving us a much better working environment. When customers come in, they like the premises and know we mean business.” Location location location Location is important. “Everybody knows the industrial estate we’re on,” he says. “Although we’re at the back of the estate it’s very easy to direct people to our unit and of course Google will find us. “At the old premises you could see us on Google but you could have been right on top of us and not found us. We have
three times as much frontage here, with allocated parking spaces.”
The new centre is bigger, cleaner and tidier than the old one, promoting a professional image and better working environment. “The stores are a lot easier to access and we’ve got more storage capacity,” says Peter. “This means we’ve got more in stock and it’s laid out more clearly. “The lads out in the vans have more confidence about what we have in stock and it gives us the opportunity to expand our core products and bring in new lines.
The investment was worthwhile, it seems. “It put everybody on a high,” says Peter.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS: (left to right) Chris Stucke Greg Cummins, and Mike Cairney, franchisees Pi
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The old centre had just one room with the stores and trade counter all muddled in together, he explains. “Now we’ve got the centre manager’s office and the sales manager’s office, which can double as a meeting room for customers or staff.” If anyone is in any doubt as to whether they should take the plunge and invest in an improved centre, Peter is clear. “Do it. The image it portrays to customers is excellent. Rather than going into a grubby, dingy place they come into a bright and breezy centre. The shop is bright, the offices are bright and even the stores area is bright.”
The shop is expanding, with more Pirtek branded products; word is getting round and footfall has increased due to improved access. “We’re hoping to increase this further over coming years,” says Peter. “Our first service expansion will be pressure testing of hoses. We’re also servicing a good few factories dotted around the counties. Our area is quite big, covering Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny, a lot of Tipperary and Waterford city itself.”
been with Pirtek for almost 16 years, making him one of the most experienced MSSTs in the country.” The franchise has a number of ongoing maintenance contracts, including with Autolaunch; Glanbia, a global nutrition group based in Kilkenny and hose repair for Shay Power at Carrick on Suir. Total Hose Management is another revenue stream the franchise is keen to exploit. “We have one customer in the offing and if the opportunity arises, we’ll certainly get more,” says Peter.
The centre has four vans with very good MSSTs, Peter says. “One of them has
, Managing Director Pirtek UK; tek Waterford and Pirtek Cork
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Burton on Trent – Mining force
Seven kilometres’ and 45 minutes’ drive into tunnels beneath the Staffordshire countryside, Pirtek services and supplies hydraulic products at British Gypsum’s Fauld Mine. The site at Tutbury on the southern side of the Dove Valley covers an area of approximately 2,000 hectares with Pirtek’s workshop lying at a point 90m underground. Pirtek Burton has been working with British Gypsum for around two years, supplying hydraulic hoses from its workshop deep underground, allowing the company to keep its machinery on site in service.
The winding tunnel was mostly lit only by the headlights of the four by four, which coped well with the slippery brown plaster surface. In places turnings led off into disused workings and service areas. Eventually the tunnel opened out into a broader space where Pirtek’s shipping container-office was located along with numerous vehicles and larger parts. Inside the container-workshop was Pirtek’s usual array of parts and tools, which allows the hydraulic repair company to service the most demanding of clients and their equipment.
This relationship suits both sides well, as it gives Pirtek a regular stream of work and provides British Gypsum with the most reliable and high quality source of hydraulic hoses and servicing in the business. British Gypsum took Pirtek’s Toby Wilsdon down the mine to see the work the company does. Following a safety awareness test, he was fully suited up with hi-viz jacket, steel toe-capped boots, hard hat, torch and catalytic “self-rescuer” carbon monoxide filter emergency breathing device and then it was time to climb aboard the Land Rover and drive into the hillside.
GOING UNDERGROUND: Pirtek Burton MSST, Dave Laud
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Gypsum mining at Fauld Gypsum and alabaster have been
extracted in the Fauld area for at least 900 years, initially through quarrying and since the 19th century, mining, making it the oldest and largest working gypsum mine in the UK. On average 50 lorries per day leave Fauld Mine fully loaded with approximately 24 tonnes of gypsum or anhydrite. British Gypsum produces around 300-350,000 tonnes of gypsum at Fauld every year. While gypsum from the mine is no longer transformed into plaster on site, it is primarily used as a retarder in the manufacture of Portland cement. The mine supplies around 80 per cent of the gypsum and anhydrite required for the UK cement market, making it a strategic national resource. The mine is also a significant local employer, providing around 50 jobs on site. Calcite alabaster from the location has been used in buildings such as Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, the Vanderbilt mansion in New York and Chatsworth Halls in Derbyshire. Most recently, the stone was used for the new altar made for the re-internment of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral.
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Success The club has gone from the high of winning the Guinness PRO14 in 2016 to consolidation over the last couple of seasons, the new head coach coming in this year and the announcement of its new stadium development last September, as seen on page 24. The product on the field is getting better, Gavin says. “For the fifth consecutive year the Guinness PRO14 has seen more tries scored – a record 861 last year. That’s 5.9 per game, which is the highest in European leagues. We also achieved the fastest rucks in club rugby – across both northern and southern hemispheres. “We don’t win every match, however, so we have to ensure people enjoy the experience regardless. We have drummers and we have flag bearers, on occasions we’ll have fireworks,
Pirtek UK and Ireland – On the ball
With its new stadium having been announced in September, Connacht Rugby is a club making steady progress on the field, off the field and in the community. Local business, Pirtek is proud to be a sponsor of Connacht Rugby an important member of the community. Former Connacht Rugby captain and Ireland international, Gavin Duffy, who is now Partnership Manager for the club explains how the relationship works for both sides.
“People look very favourably on brands that associate themselves with sports they identify with and consumers’ trust in sponsorship as a way of connecting with brands is at an all-time high. “Also, along with increasing brand awareness and media exposure, loyalty to and propensity to purchase a sponsor’s brand are also significant benefits, with one in five Irish adults likely to switch to a brand if it becomes sponsor of a sports team they follow.”
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HARLOW 01279 427 300 HULL 1482 217 222 IPSWICH 01473 688 288 ISLEWORTH 020 8847 5095 ISLE OF WIGHT 01983 528 000 KIDDERMINSTER 01562 753 770 KILMARNOCK 01563 521 166 KINGS CROSS 020 7700 1819 KINROSS 01577 865 855 LEEDS 0113 244 2700 LEICESTER 01162 547 745 LEYTON 020 8556 9500 LIMERICK 061 305569 LINCOLN 01522 697 698 LIVERPOOL 0151 933 9000 LUTON 01582 597 050 MANCHESTER EAST 0161 785 9100 MANCHESTER 0161 877 0000 MANSFIELD 01623 555 500 MEDWAY 01634 297 080 MILTON KEYNES 01908 565 500 MITCHAM 020 8640 6565 NEWPORT 01633 868 655 NORTHAMPTON 01604 499 644 NORWICH 01603 744 544 NOTTINGHAM 01159 850 081
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CAMBRIDGE 01223 835 222 CLEVELAND 01642 611 111 CORK 00353 21421 0990 COVENTRY 02476 633 797 CRAWLEY 01293 571 707 CUMBRIA 01768 210 055 DERBY 01332 205 000
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ERITH 01322 350 400 EXETER 01392 499 030 FALKIRK 01324 611 444
dford
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GALWAY 00353 91 730 530 GLASGOW 0141 641 4422 GLOUCESTER 01452 881 861 GREENWICH 020 7237 8230 GUILDFORD 01483 454 546
Crawley
uth
OLDBURY 0121 552 3355 OXFORD 01865 711 323
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we’ll have live music and hospitality events. We want to provide an excellent matchday experience.” Grassroots to Green Shirts Connacht Rugby’s Grassroots to Green Shirts philosophy is about delivering on the ambitions of the people who founded the club in 1885 and their belief that rugby would add value to their community. “We strive to make a positive impact within our communities, to be able to grow the game, to make this a sustainable club and also to inspire communities beyond the boundaries of rugby whenever possible,” says Gavin. “Every member of staff including the pro team players and management is behind that vision. The club is far bigger than just the pro team. It’s really important to us that we engage with clubs and communities right across the province.” This community engagement was demonstrated when the team returned home after lifting the PRO14 trophy in Edinburgh in 2016. Gavin says, “Coming back from Knock Airport, the welcome we got at half one in the morning was incredible. There were bonfires on the side of the road. More than 15,000 people welcomed the team home the following day. It was something else, an incredible occasion. “Following on from the win, season ticket sales shot up by 45 per cent in 2016-17, remaining up in 2017-18. Those fans came on board, enjoyed the experience, and bought into what we were doing. “But it’s about much more than just rugby,” says Gavin. “We believe we have an opportunity to represent everything that is great about Connacht, as a people and as a place.”
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Sport for all The club is deeply involved across the province of Connacht. Gavin explains. “We’ve 26 clubs and 40 schools across the province, 6,663 boys and girls playing mini and youth rugby (U7-U17) and 12,756 registered players in total in Connacht.” The women’s side is massively important, he says. “We’ve a full time dedicated member of staff looking after the growth of the women’s game across primary schools and clubs. “We now have 12 girls only mini-sections whereas in 2010 we didn’t have any – the underage girls were playing with the boys. “Along with fully fledged underage teams, we have youth competitions for girls, we’ve senior competitions for women and we’ve an underage team playing and winning trophies in provincial rugby competitions. We’ve also got a sevens team and a women’s senior team feeding players into the national teams. “We’re trying to ensure that every kid that gets a chance to pick up a ball and play rugby is getting well coached, so we’re trying to get all our coaches accredited now. “That means that we go to clubs rather than asking coaches to take time out to come here. We go to the clubs and help get them accredited. We try to help clubs with their facilities, if they want to access grants we’ll help them with the paperwork if required. We also help recruit, educate and support our referees’ association.” “Female participation has grown considerably,” Gavin says.
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Volunteers “We’ve 1,050 volunteers engaged across our 27 clubs. Some of those clubs will have a membership of five or six hundred; others might have a membership of 100 and only three volunteers cutting the grass and keeping the lights on. “So we’ve been into those clubs and asked, how can we assist? How can we help bring in more people from the community and get the mums and dads involved? Because if the clubs fail, we’re going to fail ultimately. “We have 25 members of staff in our clubs and schools department. Seven of those are office based, away from the
pitch, in the governance of the clubs. We have 18 in the schools and the clubs trying to drive participation.” Worldwide reach Connacht Rugby is making waves in the media, making it a very attractive sponsorship opportunity for Pirtek. The PRO14 league has teams from five countries, including South Africa and every game in that league will be broadcast in 2018-19. Overall Connacht Rugby games are broadcast in 168 countries. The club also has strong domestic coverage, Gavin explains. “Eir bought the TV rights this season. TG Ceathair (TG4), the Irish regional-based channel, also
has the rights to show all our matches. Combined with Premier Sports in the UK, the deal is brilliant for us because it’s the first time all our home matches will be live on TV.” Across the UK and Ireland the club has a total audience of 2.6m, with 205 broadcast hours, 79 per cent of that live. Connacht Rugby also has a growing and engaged audience across social media channels.With 18.1m interactions annually on Facebook, 23.5m on Twitter and 12m on Instagram. Sports sponsorship is therefore a great avenue, which is explored by all franchises, be it Connacht Rugby with a strong Irish focus, or the long-standing partnership with Andrew Jordan in the British Touring Car Championship in the UK.
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training centre, while retaining existing greyhound racing facilities. The multi- use facility will also be available for other sporting fixtures and events where demand arises, giving maximum exposure to Pirtek’s pitchside and stand- mounted banners. Gavin Duffy, former Galway captain and Ireland International, now working as Partnership Manager at the club, says, “The beauty and drawback of the current stadium is that more often than not we can put up ‘sold out’ signs, which creates extra demand. So in the new, larger
The Sportsground – redevelopment plans
Having sponsorship deals with West Surrey racing in the British Touring Car Championship and Connacht Rugby in the west of Ireland, Pirtek is deeply involved in sport.
The Galway rugby team announced redevelopment plans for its Sportsground Stadium in September, delivering a modern, fit for purpose rugby venue in addition to a new high-performance
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stadium we want to retain that sense of ‘I’d better get a ticket, it’s the place to be,’ but have the ability to satisfy that demand. We know that if people can come here, be under cover and stay dry, they’re going to come back more regularly.”
the stadium in addition to an independent cost benefit analysis.
Willie Ruane, CEO of Connacht Rugby said, “A key pillar of the vision for Connacht Rugby, Grassroots to Green Shirts, is to deliver facilities that match our ambition. The arrangement we have reached with the IGB, paves the way for the delivery of modern fit for purpose facilities to sustain the Sportsground as the home of club and professional rugby in the province.
The stadium development will cost around €30m with a capacity of 12,000. It will be funded through a combination of public funds, most notably through the Large Scale Sports Infrastructure Fund and private funding.
The plan was made possible by an arrangement between the Irish
Greyhound Board and the freeholders of the Sportsground, the Galway Agricultural and Sports Society, following a rigorous process to identify the optimum location, composition and design for
“The plans also include a high-performance training centre to
provide our existing professional players, as well as emerging
talent, access to appropriate facilities to enable them to fulfil their potential. Our
vision is to ensure that the province has a stadium that future generations of sports stars, supporters and all the
people of the West of Ireland can be immensely
proud of.”
Ger Dollard, CEO of the Irish Greyhound Board, said, “The proposed development will deliver state of the art facilities in the Sportsground which will greatly enhance the experience of our customers and also benefit dog owners and breeders.” The Irish Rugby Football Union is also fully supportive of the plans. The body’s CEO, Phillip Browne said, “The Sportsground has been the home of rugby in Connacht since 1927 and it is fitting that as the team develops the ground does too.”
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Bristol – Cleaning up
MAKING WAKES: Whirlpool’s Maintenance Manager, Matthew Wyatt; and Pirtek Bristol Sales Manager, Jason Greenwood
Explaining what Whirlpool makes at the Yate factory, Maintenance Manager Matthew Wyatt says, “We have multiple hydraulic machines running here, including drum manufacture lines, which are cutting, forming and seaming the drums.
the front, side and rear panels for the products. There are folding machines and a few things like that but most of it is drum, side and rear panel manufacture. “As with any factory now, there’s lots of componentry brought in but all the steelwork is manufactured on site, so we are manufacturing all of the primary
Since February 2018, Pirtek Bristol has been working at Whirlpool’s tumble dryer factory in Yate to improve the efficiency of its hydraulic systems through data-led preventative maintenance.
“There are four 600-tonne hydraulic multi-stage forming presses creating
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process steel here and then fitting and assembling the final finished product.
Pirtek we have the right stock in the right place to do a professional job in a timely manner – that’s what we do.”
so we can forecast the work looking forward to the following shutdown.
“Two years ago, we hit a peak production output of 1.2m units per year, with a weekly high of 38,000 a week. We employ around 400 people here.” The brief Darren Squire, Franchisee of Pirtek Bristol had mentioned Whirlpool to his sales manager, Jason Greenwood, as a potential client and it was perfect timing when Matt took hold of the maintenance department in May 2017. Jason made contact with Matt, they came together for a chat and things developed from there. Matt could see a lot of improvements were required. “For a UK manufacturer, reliability, efficiency and performance is critical. There is a drive at Whirlpool towards world class manufacturing, so the focus is on professional,
“There have been little or no surprises and the failures have been forecast, budgeted and paid for prior to fitting,” Matt concludes. Hose register “When Pirtek came in we were looking for a supplier that was going to be able to deliver timely and effective hose fitting, help us with site registers and asset management on the hoses,” he says. “In the last six months we’ve gone from having no record or track of the standard of hoses, their quality, length or type, to now having a full hose register and being able to identify every one of the hoses on site.
‘Whirlpool puts its faith in us’
Work flow “I would say over the past six months, we’ve had someone on site from Pirtek probably every two to three weeks,” says Matt. “We operate three shutdown periods a year, plus the Christmas holiday. In the three major shutdowns this year, so far Pirtek has been in for every one of those, making the Total Hose Management register, performing the site inspections and giving us a view
“Now we’re in a situation where we can pick up the phone and request a hose
preventative maintenance and quality of machinery.
TEAM: Jason Greenwood with Pirtek MSST Chay Cotton
“I knew the standards that Whirlpool wanted us to work towards and Pirtek was offering exactly what we wanted – hose register, total management and control of preventative maintenance,” Matt says. “It is our MSST who is very much at the coal face,” says Jason. “He is involved with and speaks directly to Matt. Darren has also come and sat in on meetings. “We’ve got good communication, which is half the battle, knowing who’s doing what, when we’re doing it and having the right people to do it. At
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from Pirtek and they know they’ve got the right material on the van to bring out within an hour callout. We don’t need to keep any stock. We can rely entirely on the callout service.” Jason explains further. “Because of the Total Hose Management register we know every single hose on site. Bristol is kitted out purposefully, it has the largest size fittings on the shelf waiting. “That’s what Pirtek does – one-hour hose replacement. We have the right stock, we have our MSST on standby and if a breakdown comes along, he’s here with the right stock and the parts are replaced.” “It’s very much an ongoing relationship,” says Matt. “That’s why we’ve got them managing our hose register. What we’re
looking for is periodic inspection so we have a clear view of hose safety on site and reliability. The real view is entirely preventative maintenance.” ‘Leaks have reduced by 90 per cent’ Jason elaborates, “All the hoses are now dated so we refer to that and say it now needs inspecting and changing. We control it rather than it controlling us.” Making progress Over the first six months working at Yate, Pirtek’s achievement has been impressive. Jason says, “The focus of our efforts here was to reduce the leaks and
reduce the downtime and I think that has been wholly effective so far.”
Matt agrees. “The condition of the machinery in terms of leaks and losses has massively improved since we began working with Pirtek and I think we have exchanged around 40 per cent of the hoses on site in the last six months. “I would say site leaks have reduced by 90 per cent in that time. That’s a massive improvement. We were having heavy oil leaks and the condition of the machinery was poor because of that. Pirtek’s work has improved availability and environmentally as well because we’re saving vast amounts of oil.” A proactive approach Matt continues, “We’ve been conducting regular audits and now have a healthy
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register of hoses on site. That has come purely through Pirtek’s involvement, managing the hose register and health check of our hoses.” What runs inside the hoses is important too. “Pirtek is helping us with oil analysis,” says Matt, “so we’ve been doing periodic oil analysis checks on machinery, as required. We’ve been running live filtration on the hydraulic packs to improve the oil analysis to the kind of preventative standards that we want from the machinery.” Jason sums up, “Although we still have a lot of hoses to replace, we can undertake more proactive projects like moving on to Shell oil, which works in a different way and can be filtered better, improving the plant’s efficiency even further. “We’ve changed from a reactive to a proactive approach. Everything is now professional maintenance rather than breakdown reaction. We could have gone in and simply replaced hoses, but we didn’t. We fitted the hoses correctly and resolved issues to give much greater reliability. This way, we gained their trust. As you saw in Matt, we are very well looked upon now – trusted.”
Putting faith in Pirtek
Pirtek has been working on the contract since February 2018, going round, inspecting every machine on site, checking the hoses for damage, leaks and age, then inputting that data into the hose register and recommending replacement as and when. Pirtek found areas for improvement on fit and performance on hoses in place, starting from scratch to give the standard of finish to the customer’s requirements.
service Pirtek has provided, which can only lead to bigger and better things.
It all depends on shutdown periods. When Pirtek first started working there, its MSST was in all day, three to four days a week. Now it’s closer to spending two or three days there every three or four weeks, working through as much as he can in the day and then being called in as and when any other problems arise. It took two to three months to get the situation under control and stabilise things. When Pirtek first went in, there were leaks left, right and centre, damaged hoses, incorrectly fitted hoses. That was the hardest part. Since getting on top of all that, it’s been pretty straightforward. There is a total of anywhere between 600 and 700 hoses that need changing and Pirtek has done between 200 and 250, so there’s still a lot of work to be done. It is a large project but Pirtek is getting there slowly and surely. Some jobs are relatively straightforward, but others are more challenging because some hoses are routed through the walls to the power pack at the top. This means it’s not just a straightforward replacement, the MSST has to work out how to get the new one in before taking the old one out. Trying to get inside the centre of the press machines is quite tight but Pirtek always finds a way.
‘Pirtek always finds a way’
All the data is kept on a list so everyone knows what has and hasn’t been done. Pirtek has a copy and Matt’s got a copy so anyone can look up what needs to be done in the near future. As and when Matt decides he wants another batch of hoses, Pirtek goes in and sorts it out. To start with this was three or four dozen hoses at a time but it’s dropping down now as Pirtek gets on top of it. When Matt calls Pirtek in, they change a few here and there until they get the majority of it done. Whirlpool puts its faith in Pirtek to go in and do the job and that’s what Pirtek’s done. There have been no issues, no problems and Matt’s been over the moon with the
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