When we announced ourselves as the official UK and Ireland distributor for New Zealand-based Simpro Handling Equipment Ltd a year ago, we knew this would be a fantastic journey. Founded in 1986, family-owned Simpro has carved a niche for itself in the global waste management industry by manufacturing high-quality bin lifting equipment.
In the UK, their popular bin-lifting equipment, Dumpmaster and MegaDumper, are known in the market for being safe, fast and reliable. Why Simpro? Well, our Waste2ES systems can be made even better when operated with a Simpro bin-lifter. That is an added advantage we wanted our clients to enjoy.
Recently, we got the chance to (virtually) sit down with Braden Simmons, Marketing Director at Simpro to understand how the past year has been working with Waste2ES and what is in store for the company. Let us see how it went:
Team Waste2ES: Please tell us about the Simpro range of products that Waste2Es are acting as the UK and European distributor for. What makes them stand out from the competition?
Braden Simmons: We have been manufacturing electro-hydraulic lifting equipment, most notably bin lifters, since the mid-1980s. Our customers are often fiercely loyal but find it challenging to articulate precisely why. We have learned it is often subtle things that make the difference.
For instance, our equipment is deceptively simple, which is a complicated thing to achieve in industrial design. However, it offers huge downstream benefits in terms of cost, reliability and maintainability. Simpro products are also genuinely safe, which is something we take very seriously.
TW: Why did you choose Waste2ES to work with?
BS: There were obvious synergies with the other products in the Waste2ES portfolio, such as their iD-R food waste technologies. However, again, it was probably more subtle than that. You could use abstract words about culture and energy, but easier to say that we got on well. Business is about people, after all.
TW: How were you selling your products into these markets before W2ES was appointed?
BS: Simpro had been tiptoeing around the UK and EU markets for some time, going back to the 2000s, but had always been held back by several factors. Aside from the tyranny of distance, there were complex cultural and language barriers — even in the pre-Brexit UK, where business culture and expectations were noticeably focused on the EU. To steal a phrase, perhaps it was time for a breath of fresh air!
Similarly, Simpro had largely been focused on our businesses elsewhere in the world, such as Australia and the USA. We did have several smaller agents around the UK and Europe, some of whom imported units by air — at a cost of thousands of dollars apiece. But COVID-19 put paid to airfreight, even as demand went up.
It was quickly apparent that we needed to either establish our own logistics footprint in Europe or find a partner who could. We chose the latter.
TW: Are there any synergies between Simpro Handling Equipment and W2ES that you identified?
BS: Well, our products literally integrate into one system! And as mentioned above, we enjoy working with Richard and Waste2ES team.
TW: Why should someone buy a Simpro bin lifter?
BS: We think of our buying process as being made up of five considerations — Productivity, Safety, Quality, Cost, and Environment. Every customer values these ideas differently.
But if we were to bundle them up into a single phrase, it would probably be something like ‘Smart Lifting.’ That, after all, is our motto!
There are so many ways our products can be used too — we may have initially talked to Richard and the Waste2ES team about lifting bins of food waste, but our bin lifters are used in construction, food processing, and a ton of other industries where a volume of something heavy has to be lifted and tipped.
TW: Is there anything else you would like to add?
BS: Only that we look forward to working with Waste2ES over the coming years to build on this exciting opportunity. And, of course, to say thank you and stay safe!
If you would like to learn more about the Simpro bin-lifting equipment, please visit this page. You will also find a helpful calculator which assesses a user’s volume of food waste and bin usage. Alternatively, please email us at enquiries@waste2es.com.
