INDUSTRY
Ambitious – Mammoet ’ s managing director Mark Sadler .
A LOVE FOR LIFTING
Teesside heavy lifting and transportation firm making the difference on the biggest of stages
WORDS : GRAEME ANDERSON PICTURE : TOM BANKS
If you ’ re one of those who have marvelled at some of the mega-infrastructure projects currently taking place across the country - the sheer , jaw-dropping scale of HS2 , Hinkley Point C or some of the colossal wind turbines being loaded out into the North Sea - the chances are you ’ ve been watching a Teesside-based company in action .
With a history that can be traced back more than 200 years , this is a company that ’ s grown to become a global leader , with its UK headquarters located here in the Tees Valley .
Now Mammoet , the heavy lifting and transportation specialist , is plotting continued growth throughout the UK in all directions following on from its regional expansion at Thornaby ’ s Teesside Industrial Estate and the acquisition of one of its major rivals , ALE , giving them a base in Staffordshire as well as satellite locations in Bridgwater and Sellafield , Cumbria .
“ It ’ s a really busy and exciting time for the company , with so much development across a diverse range of industries ,” confirms Mammoet ’ s UK managing director Mark Sadler . “ We ’ ve got some great projects in the pipeline too , which offers our team some obvious challenges but also some wonderful opportunities .”
Although many of the projects that Mammoet takes on can be fiendishly complex and logistically fraught with risk if not handled expertly , Mark insists the company ’ s core mission is essentially a simple one : “ We ’ re problem solvers ,” he says .
“ Our customers face issues in delivering some of the UK ’ s most challenging projects , whether this is nuclear decommissioning , constructing offshore wind farms or delivering infrastructure projects , we get involved with all kinds of work .
“ It ’ s our job to work closely with them to develop and implement the ideal solution for the installation of key components . “ Some of those requests can be demanding and often they are deadlineorientated , which adds an extra dimension , but we set ambitious goals as a combined project team with our customers .”
Whether it be the intricate manipulation of a 10-tonne item in a nuclear facility or the load-in of a complete 35,000-tonne offshore platform for decommissioning , some of the cargo that Mammoet moves often has to be seen to be believed .
At Nigg , in Scotland , north of Inverness , one of Mammoet ’ s PTC cranes is lifting 2,200-tonne ” jackets ” – the giant steel foundations for wind turbines currently being installed out in the North Sea .
The crane , one of the largest-based cranes in the world , is so big it takes up to eight weeks to assemble .
It has a 50-metre ring-base diameter and when laid flat during construction covers the size of two football pitches .
Mammoet also transports over vast distances , as in the case of the giant hydrogen-powered furnace that Mark ’ s team moved from Thailand to Liverpool and from Ellesmere Port to the Essar Stanlow refinery in Cheshire .
As well as the high-profile projects like HS2 and Hinkley Point C , the largest specialist heavy lifting company in the country has many of its 400-plus staff nationwide engaged in the petrochemical , civil , renewables and nuclear industries , where it has established relationships and longstanding contracts to service specific and unique needs .
Speaking with a pride for developing local talent , Mark admits that as Mammoet continues to grow , so will the need to continue to develop talent on Teesside .
“ It does make me feel proud that we have the capacity in this country to handle these major national infrastructure projects for ourselves ,” said Mark .
“ The demand for our services is only growing as the country addresses a whole host of long-term manufacturing , industrial and infrastructure requirements and as a business we ’ re looking to attract the best and brightest talent to become part of an exciting company in a specialist sector which offers , quite literally , big opportunities .”
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