he says. “I’m very conservative by nature and we’ve taken a lot of small steps to grow, but now we’re hitting that big growth stage.” A big part of Manchester Sling’s growth in the near
years before he retired. I’ve made key hires as we’ve grown and it’s been 14 years since.” Today, Manchester makes everything from lower capacity slings all the way up to gear for much larger applications and their products can be found on job sites around the globe. And while profits, market share and the satisfactions of success motivate Meador and his team, he’s made safety the centerpiece of Manchester’s manufacturing practices. “Our focus is on safety,” says Meador. “We don’t go for the cheapest wire rope products, just for price. Our competitors sometimes have cheaper manufacturing costs, but that’s not what we do. Every product that goes out is important. Our products are lifting over people’s heads and we want to make sure that our clients and their families are home safe everyday.” While he’s clearly a confident leader who’s proud to lead a successful company, Meador is quick to point the company’s most important resource: Its personnel. “We’re a lean company, but we have one of the finest staffs in the industry,” says Meador. “Te experience and expertise of our staff, and the service we are able to deliver – we’re Johnny-on-the-spot. We’re a 24/7 shop and we’ll go the extra mile to take care of the client. I’m proud of our people and what they do.”
While most businesses in most industries have struggled to maintain profits and market share since the darkest days of the most recent recession, Meador has mustered an optimistic vision of the future for Manchester Sling. “Te market’s good. We’re still climbing out of the recession, but we’ve been blessed to be in the Gulf Coast,”
EVERY PRODUCT THAT GOES OUT IS IMPORTANT. OUR PRODUCTS ARE LIFTING OVER PEOPLE’S HEADS AND WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT OUR CLIENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES
ARE HOME SAFE EVERYDAY. - Trey Meador, President and CEO of Manchester Sling
22 JULY-AUGUST 2013 WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
future will come from the new and unique partnership they’ve formed with their longtime client Mammoet. Mammoet is the largest custom-crafted heavy lifting and multimodal transport solutions specialist in the world. Teir core business is transporting, shipping, installation and removal of heavy and large objects of all kinds to and from onshore and offshore locations. Te company’s activities range across a variety of industries and projects including the petrochemical industry, power generation, marine projects and civil engineering projects. Meador and Manchester have been working with the company through Mammoet USA’s North American headquarters in Rosharon Texas. Te Texas office is the Dutch company’s gateway to all of their projects in the Americas which means that a dam building project in Argentina or a bridge restoration in Alberta, Canada would both begin in Meador’s backyard, making it a crucial hub for Mammoet and for Manchester. “We’ve been serving Mammoet for about 8 years. As our business was growing with them the need to test and certify new items meant we needed a new test bed,” says Meador. He turned to Chant Engineering in order to find just the right tool for the job. Chant is a diverse, global engineering company that designs, manufactures, services and calibrates machines that are used to test tension, compression, fatigue and torsion on lifting equipment that a company like Mammoet uses for every single job. Tis kind of testing ensures not only the working efficiency of the equipment, but also the safety of the people at some of the most massive and complex building projects on the planet. “I spoke with Phil Chant at Chant Engineering. We got the largest test bed we could get that would fit on a foundation. If we’d have gone any bigger we’d have had to go into the ground.” Te test bed Meador decided upon has a 1.3 million pound capacity. Te bed brought with it the need to develop a location to install the massive new piece of equipment. Manchester was looking at various options on its own properties when an unexpected opportunity appeared. “We were going to put up another building of our own,” says Meador. “But, then we had a meeting with Mammoet and they asked if we’d bring the bed down here and put it in Rosharon, TX – Mammoet’s North American headquarters. Tey said ‘We’re developing a four acre tract for you.’ And – long story, short – after a six month negotiation, they’re building us a new 15,000 square foot testing facility,” says Meador. In fact, Mammoet is developing a 30 acre business park where the new Manchester Sling facility will be housed. Te rest of the space will likely be filled by other partners as well as new facilities for Mammoet’s own existing divisions.
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