UK still leads the way for mining excellence
Tears were shed as Britain’s last remaining deep coal mine closed in North Yorkshire in December, bringing the curtain down on an industry which once dominated great swathes of the country.
Where there were once one million coal miners in the UK, that number has been decimated and is now limited to a small number of men working at open-pit mines.
But despite this, the world’s largest independent lubricant manufacturer, FUCHS, has made the decision to keep its Centre of Excellence for underground mining in England.
FUCHS operates in six continents – every one bar Antarctica – and all overseen from FUCHS’ UK base in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.
Far from scaling back its mining division, FUCHS has been able to expand and grow in countries like Australia, USA,
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Russia and – in the last decade China – where both longwall underground and surface mining remain key sectors.
“FUCHS, having its mining headquarters here in Staffordshire, goes back to the days of Century Oils which was a company that grew rapidly by supplying lubricants to the local mining industry in Stoke-on- Trent,” said Martyn Rushton, Head of Global Mining for the FUCHS Group.
“It’s an historic relationship which goes back well over 100 years.
“To still have the Centre of Excellence held here at FUCHS UK makes us all exceptionally proud.”
FUCHS acquired Century Oils in 1991 and set its sights on new territories.
Martyn said: “Throughout the 1980s, the UK longwall mining industry was declining rapidly. It was a horrendous period. During the strikes we had to
make redundancies and, when the strike was in full flow, we couldn’t even get to the mines.
“We had to make some deliveries because there was equipment which had to be maintained from a safety aspect. I remember crossing the picket lines and that wasn’t pleasant at all.
“But we came through that and when FUCHS took over Century Oils, the focus really switched to overseas, including non English-speaking countries. We went to Poland, Russia and the Ukraine where there was a huge amount of business to be won.”
Today FUCHS’ most significant markets include South America, South Asia and the Nordics.
Each of these present their own unique challenges. Martyn said: “Often these mines are in the middle of nowhere, which can be a logistical nightmare.
Continued on page 22
LUBE MAGAZINE NO.132 APRIL 2016
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