How the Bulk Materials Team work to ‘Make It Better’

Established in 2016, ConSpare’s Bulk Materials Team has undergone a rapid expansion and has built a reputation across the industry on the back of the expertise and knowledge it can offer to concrete producers to help them optimise their processes.

Here, Bulk Materials General Manager Dave Patterson explains how his team helps our clients to make it better.

The Bulk Team has become a bit of a hub for belt conveyor improvement in the concrete industry. How do you think you’ve achieved this?

We’re really pleased with our progress in such a short period of time, and really value the positive feedback we’re receiving from our customers.

Our expertise and product portfolio mean that we can supply, install and maintain effective long-term solutions for belt cleaning, tracking, spillage and dust control issues on belt conveyors. This approach is really helping plant operators to make it better.

The products we offer aren’t from a single source. We are very selective about who we work with and have cherry picked only highest-performing products which provide the best solutions to overcome our customers’ challenges.

We’re delighted to be trusted to recommend and supply the best solution for each individual project.

How has ConSpare changed with the addition of your team?

ConSpare’s business model is so very different now, it’s no longer solely about just supplying the best products to industry. Now, in terms of conveyor belts at least, we can fit and maintain as well, taking some ownership of this critical piece of kit on behalf of the client if they want.

This helps us to develop relationships with clients on a deeper level, because we know what we’re talking about, we’re good at what we do and we can show people the value we add by them working with us.

In your view, where does the Bulk Team’s service offering fit into ConSpare’s new ‘Make it better’ ethos?

I think first and foremost, it comes down to our people. We have really good engineers in our team who truly are experts at what they do. They were pretty much hand-picked to come and help build this team and they are all extremely competent professionals who know their stuff.

Their eyes on site allow us to assess the conveyors as part of the overall production process. For example, how often do they have to maintain their current equipment, and how long does it take? Are the belts losing excessive amounts of material, leading to clean-up issues and possible batching inaccuracies? Asking these big questions allows us to provide the best possible solution to the client, and it’s what makes investing in good quality components all the more worthwhile.

In terms of the products you provide, how do they add value to the plant & process?

For me, it’s all about return on investment. The products we supply may be a bit more expensive than our competitors, but that’s because they are best in class. They use the best engineering available to offer the lowest whole life cost on the market and they also extend the lifespans of other very expensive components like the conveyor belt material itself or the conveyor structure.

Similarly, you might need to spend a bit more in terms of resolving all the issues on the plant rather than looking at each one in isolation. But, the gains this unlocks, in terms of return on investment, far outweigh the initial spend. Keeping conveyors running efficiently and removes potential bottlenecks from the overall concrete production process, and keeping operators away from conveyors, whether that be for maintenance or cleaning, can only be a good thing for site safety.