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Mallaghan celebrates 21 years!
Leading supplier of ground support equipment to the aviation industry, Northern Ireland-based Mallaghan is celebrating 21 years in the business! OnBoard Hospitality asks Owen McKenna, sales director at Mallaghan, what he considers has led to the success of the company.
Can you describe the exact nature of your business? We design, build and supply a wide range of aircraft ground support equipment, including catering trucks, cabin cleaning vehicles, medical lifts, toilet and water service trucks and aircraft passenger steps.
What has been Mallaghan’s biggest challenge to date? The aftermath of 9/11 was certainly a short- term challenge for us as the industry in general suffered from the drop in passenger air travel. Fortunately we managed to fight our corner because we have a diverse product and customer base, particularly geographically. Whilst some of the American and European airlines may have suffered, the Middle Eastern airlines, and of course the low cost carriers, grew. Some of our competitors struggled at this time but we came out stronger. The second challenge was the engineering and logistical difficulty of servicing the upper deck of the A380, but this also opened up an opportunity for us.
How has the arrival of the A380 affected your business? The A380 requires some very specific equipment on the ground and we were actually part of the A380 working group set up by Airbus, liaising with suppliers and the airlines to provide the perfect solution for getting F&B on board in the simplest and quickest way. Due to the great height of the aircraft and particular location of the main top catering service door, it did provide all manufacturers with a challenge that I think we
have embraced, and today the market place reflects this. (Mallaghan has manufactured over 35 A380 trucks to date.)
Since the launch of the A380 have you had to make any adjustments/improvements? Different catering companies and airlines have different operating procedures that may require different specifications and adjustments. For example the varying loading bay heights at different airports may require catering companies to use different chassis options such as Mercedes, MAN, Iveco etc.
Can you name some of your airline clients? Within the catering market we are very proud that we supply many of the major catering companies including Gate Gourmet, LSG Sky Chefs, Alpha and Servair.
Finally, to what do you attribute the success of your business? That is a hard question to answer, and like anybody else in this industry we all make mistakes, but I would like to think that we learn from them. Our success is probably
down to the fact that we make a good quality product at a good quality price. There’s been an evolution not a revolution with Mallaghan over the years, during which time, we have expanded our base from Ireland, out to wider Europe and then to the Middle East, Africa, Far East etc. We have built our customer base but we’ve also supported them. We understand the importance of diversification and are well equipped to move with the fast pace of the industry. Our highly skilled technical and engineering departments are able to produce quality products whilst incorporating the individual requirements of our customers for our expanding range of equipment.
Aviation Ground Support Equipment Tel +44 (0) 2887 723444
www.mallaghan.co.uk
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