Majorlift Brand Update
Majorlift: the undisputed market leaders in hydraulic lifting equipment!
We are incredibly proud that every single piece of our powerful equipment is designed and engineered by us, right here in the UK.
For over half a century, Majorlift has been the bedrock of power, reliability, and safety in hydraulic lifting. Since 1971, every single tool has been meticulously crafted with our deep expertise, right here in our cutting-edge UK factory. We don’t just build equipment: we service and support the very foundation of your operational success, guaranteeing years of flawless performance, unrivalled safety and product quality.
As industries change and move forward, so do we. Majorlift is incredibly excited to reveal our dynamic new logo. This isn’t just a fresh look, it’s a powerful symbol that both respects our rich history and propels us boldly into tomorrow, showcasing our enduring dedication to innovation and excellence.
New hydraulic service centre
Majorlift are pleased to announce the establishment of a service and repair workshop, capable of the repair and reconditioning of any Majorlift product.
Setup with a dedicated team of highly skilled hydraulic engineers in a separate workshop, the service centre is fully equipped with all of the tools and machinery required to undertake all jobs from a simple ram reseal or power pack repair up to a full reconditioning of any of our products, including commercial pit jacks.
All our repairs are undertaken using original equipment parts and are fully guaranteed. A full recondition is backed with a 12 month warranty and a new test certificate, valid for a year.
Returned product is stripped back to bare metal, inspected and resprayed before begin returned in near new condition.
We also offer a service/exchange service, where we hold recondition rams and power packs on the shelf, ready for same day shipping to ensure your kit is back working quickly. Your own, life expired part can be returned to us at your leisure.
Setup with a dedicated team of highly skilled hydraulic engineers in a separate workshop, the service centre is fully equipped with all of the tools and machinery required to undertake all jobs from a simple ram reseal or power pack repair up to a full reconditioning of any of our products, including commercial pit jacks.
All our repairs are undertaken using original equipment parts and are fully guaranteed. A full recondition is backed with a 12 month warranty and a new test certificate, valid for a year.
Returned product is stripped back to bare metal, inspected and resprayed before begin returned in near new condition.
We also offer a service/exchange service, where we hold recondition rams and power packs on the shelf, ready for same day shipping to ensure your kit is back working quickly. Your own, life expired part can be returned to us at your leisure.
Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew….
Britain’s latest Firefighter…
Ashley Pugh has passed out as a retained fire fighter with Gloucester Fire & Rescue after five weeks of training. Ashley, who works in Majorlift’s machine shop as a CNC machine tool operator, was released by Majorlift for the training in three blocks over two months. Having successfully completed his training, Ashley is now on call for the Stroud Fire Station and has already been out on some “shouts”. All of this is done outside his working hours as he is a keen and committed member of Majorlift’s production team.
“Lots of my family are already in the fire service and I was trained in Cheltenham where my uncle works. We learned a lot of useful skills, including how to safely use the breathing apparatus and it has long been an ambition of mine to join”
Tristram Southgate, Majorlift’s MD added “We are really proud of Ashley’s achievement. It is good to see team members developing their skills, inside and outside work, and we are especially keen to be supporting the Fire Service by releasing Ashley. Of course, we can also make use of his new skills to improve fire safety at work, so everybody wins”
Ashley Pugh has passed out as a retained fire fighter with Gloucester Fire & Rescue after five weeks of training. Ashley, who works in Majorlift’s machine shop as a CNC machine tool operator, was released by Majorlift for the training in three blocks over two months. Having successfully completed his training, Ashley is now on call for the Stroud Fire Station and has already been out on some “shouts”. All of this is done outside his working hours as he is a keen and committed member of Majorlift’s production team.
“Lots of my family are already in the fire service and I was trained in Cheltenham where my uncle works. We learned a lot of useful skills, including how to safely use the breathing apparatus and it has long been an ambition of mine to join”
Tristram Southgate, Majorlift’s MD added “We are really proud of Ashley’s achievement. It is good to see team members developing their skills, inside and outside work, and we are especially keen to be supporting the Fire Service by releasing Ashley. Of course, we can also make use of his new skills to improve fire safety at work, so everybody wins”
Any colour you like, Sir!
Majorlift are pleased to announce the successful installation of brand new, state of the art spray bay. Designed as a replacement for the original, 30 year old booth, the new equipment includes two new, enclosed booths and a central paint kitchen in between. It also features gas heating to enable work in the coldest weather and to “future proof” us against changes in paint technology.
Tristram Southgate, Majorlift’s MD said “we have made this investment after a lot of research and consideration. We needed to keep up with health & safety legislation and to provide a great working environment for our employees. However, we also chose this with an eye to increasing capacity. We have two new booths to replace the one old one and they are both double the height of the original, which gives us much more headroom for the new products we are introducing”.
Spray time can be considerably reduced, as one batch it can be drying in one booth while the next is being sprayed in the other. Our picture shows Richard spraying Majorlift’s popular 7900 air power packs.
Tristram Southgate, Majorlift’s MD said “we have made this investment after a lot of research and consideration. We needed to keep up with health & safety legislation and to provide a great working environment for our employees. However, we also chose this with an eye to increasing capacity. We have two new booths to replace the one old one and they are both double the height of the original, which gives us much more headroom for the new products we are introducing”.
Spray time can be considerably reduced, as one batch it can be drying in one booth while the next is being sprayed in the other. Our picture shows Richard spraying Majorlift’s popular 7900 air power packs.
Majorlift invests for the future
Majorlift are proud to announce the purchase of a new Doosan VM400II vertical machining centre.
This new VMC is in addition to the three Milacron mills that Majorlift already operate on a two shift system so will increase the milling capacity by a further 30%.
The biggest issue turned out to be “how do we fit it into our machine shop?” The answer was to completely re-organise the factory and by improving the workflow around the machines, created the necessary space.
It was a real team effort, with the operators involved in the siting of each machine to make it as efficient as possible. The team built up stocks beforehand and made the move over a weekend, to ensure that no customers were affected.
Tristram Southgate, Majorlift’s MD, said “The new machine doesn’t just look good – it has a 30 tool carousel and through spindle coolant to ensure greater accuracy and improved finishes. It has also enabled us to work with Quickgrind – our tooling supplier – to develop smarter tools which will reduce cycle times and improve the quality of product coming off the machines. This will reduce the five year payback period that we used to base the purchase decision on”.
Majorlift pride themselves in the fact that they design and manufacture all components in house, which includes all cylinders, rams and air motors. They also have further plans to invest in a new two spindle lathe with live tooling to enable more “one hit machining” as to ensure that their production in the UK remains competitive and affordable.
Solar Energy Project
In February 2014 we had 300 Solar Panels fitted to our factory roof, costing £85K and financed by a carbon trust loan over seven years.
The original plan was that It would be a self-funding project after 7 years we will be generating £12K of our own electricity per year based on 2014 prices.
In the last six months, this plant has generated nearly 60,000 KWh and we have been able to sell over £6K of electricity back to the grid, so we are on target to achieve our payback – and that’s if electricity prices remain at 2014 levels. Majorlift is proud to be doing its bit for the environment, energy saving and reducing power costs.
We’d be happy to demonstrate the system and put you in contact with the installers if you are interested in setting up your own solar plant.
Malcolm Knight Retires
Malcolm retired last week after 17 years on Majorlift’s sales desk. He will be missed by customers and colleagues alike, as he was a font of knowledge and extremely diligent in order processing.
However, it was not a sad occasion, he’s in good health and has many plans that will keep him very busy over the coming months. We shut the factory on Friday lunchtime and the whole team adjourned to the local pub, where Malcolm was expecting to have a quiet lunch with Chris Hodder. You can imagine his surprise when he found 50 colleagues waiting for him to arrive.
One of Malcolm’s many passions is his Ukuleles – he has more than a dozen and is a very accomplished player. He has entertained us all in the office with his skill and is looking forward to being able to play in the Wednesday morning jam, now that he is not tied to the office during the day. Our picture shows Malcolm cutting the cake we bought him, made in the shape of and decorated as a ukulele. It was very tasty too.
Here’s to a long and happy retirement!
Majorlift reach a new standard of Quality.
Majorlift have always believed in the importance of Quality Assurance in the manufacturing process. As an indication, we were early adopters of BS5750, the original QA standard from the British Standards Institution (BSi). We progressed on to ISO9001 when this replaced the original standard in the UK.
We are very pleased to announce that, following training and work with the BSi and a successful audit Majorlift is now accredited to the latest version of this prestigious standard, ISO9001:2015.
Rob Harrison, Majorlift’s Quality Engineer said “this is a big deal for the team at Majorlift. We were determined to achieve the new standard, but there was a lot of work in the transition. We had to review and rewrite most of the documentation and ensure that new requirements of the changed standard were covered by our Quality Management System. In the end, we achieve the transition to the new standard some 18 months before we were required to do and that’s been very satisfying”.
Majorlift’s MD, Tristram Southgate commented “This is just part of our commitment to continuous improvement – we will keep investing and developing in our team and our system. I believe that Quality Assurance is vital to the success of our business and is not just a plaque we put on the wall to attract new customers – although it is pretty good for doing that too!”.
We are very pleased to announce that, following training and work with the BSi and a successful audit Majorlift is now accredited to the latest version of this prestigious standard, ISO9001:2015.
Rob Harrison, Majorlift’s Quality Engineer said “this is a big deal for the team at Majorlift. We were determined to achieve the new standard, but there was a lot of work in the transition. We had to review and rewrite most of the documentation and ensure that new requirements of the changed standard were covered by our Quality Management System. In the end, we achieve the transition to the new standard some 18 months before we were required to do and that’s been very satisfying”.
Majorlift’s MD, Tristram Southgate commented “This is just part of our commitment to continuous improvement – we will keep investing and developing in our team and our system. I believe that Quality Assurance is vital to the success of our business and is not just a plaque we put on the wall to attract new customers – although it is pretty good for doing that too!”.
Successful apprenticeship finished early
Majorlift are pleased to announce that Will Gosling has been awarded his certificate for completing his apprenticeship in Mechanical Manufacturing Engineering, following three years of study with Gloucestershire Engineering Training (GET) in Barnwood, Gloucester. Will, from Dursley, also manged to complete his assessed assignments in company three months ahead of the April deadline.
Will is pictured receiving his certificate from Majorlift’s MD, Tristram Southgate. Tristram said “Will has worked really hard to achieve this and we are very pleased that his dedication has paid off. We are not a big company, so it is difficult to allow all the time needed during the working day – Will is a valuable member of our production team – so much of this work is done in his own time fitted around his family life.”
Majorlift have a programme of apprentice training and Will is the second person to finish their apprenticeship in the last couple of years. Tristram added “We have a mature workforce and most of our skilled employees are due to retire in about ten years’ time, so it’s crucial that we train the next generation. We like working with GET – they understand the requirements both of the educational system but also what employer need, so after a full year at GET in Barnwood, our students come into the business, ready to work and knowing what’s expected of them”
Will is now studying for his HND and has a great career in engineering ahead of him. Majorlift are also looking out for another apprentice to start in the summer of 2020. Ideally, starting in June or July to give a couple of months to learn what the company does and become part of the team before a year spent at GET in Gloucester learning the fundamentals of engineering. They then return to the company in the second year and learn to set, programme and operate Majorlift’s suite of CNC machine tools, including two new ABB computer controlled robotic welding cells.
Will is pictured receiving his certificate from Majorlift’s MD, Tristram Southgate. Tristram said “Will has worked really hard to achieve this and we are very pleased that his dedication has paid off. We are not a big company, so it is difficult to allow all the time needed during the working day – Will is a valuable member of our production team – so much of this work is done in his own time fitted around his family life.”
Majorlift have a programme of apprentice training and Will is the second person to finish their apprenticeship in the last couple of years. Tristram added “We have a mature workforce and most of our skilled employees are due to retire in about ten years’ time, so it’s crucial that we train the next generation. We like working with GET – they understand the requirements both of the educational system but also what employer need, so after a full year at GET in Barnwood, our students come into the business, ready to work and knowing what’s expected of them”
Will is now studying for his HND and has a great career in engineering ahead of him. Majorlift are also looking out for another apprentice to start in the summer of 2020. Ideally, starting in June or July to give a couple of months to learn what the company does and become part of the team before a year spent at GET in Gloucester learning the fundamentals of engineering. They then return to the company in the second year and learn to set, programme and operate Majorlift’s suite of CNC machine tools, including two new ABB computer controlled robotic welding cells.