Mac’s Trucks in Huddersfield is an ambitious, continuously expanding company.
It’s a family business in the traditional sense, now proudly employing three generations of the McDade family. It has a keen eye on the future and pioneers the way forward with innovative, award-winning products and an enviable work schedule that reflects its success and market-leading approach.
Not purely a truck business, producing up to 600 a year, the company also designs and manufactures a variety of vehicles and machinery including specialist cranes and tree felling equipment.
To support the company’s growth plans, a relationship has been forged with Smart-Space over the past few years. Mac’s Trucks has had a total of three buildings from Smart-Space with a quote currently on the table for a fourth. The first instant building was erected at the company’s previous, smaller site which was well used for a variety of processes.
The buildings provide flexibility
Andy Hall, Technical Director at Mac’s Trucks, likes the flexibility the buildings provide. “We have used them for different things over the years, from fabrication, paint booth to electrics and now crane building. The buildings give us the space to move things around and even relocate them. With sixteen different stages of our manufacturing process to manage this is really valuable”.
Flexibility is key to Mac’s Trucks as its work continues to diversify, exploring new product concepts. The team is also very keen to bring as many of the manufacturing processes in-house as possible which requires clever use of space. “We avoid supply chain issues simply by doing as much as we can ourselves” explained Joanne McDade, Financial Director.
They just got on with it
In terms of managing the build, Mac’s Trucks organised for the concrete base to be laid whilst Smart-Space took care of everything else. “It went very smoothly with the build happening exactly as expected and promised. The lads were spot on” explained Andy Hall. “They just got with it, observed all health and safety guidance as usual and we left them to it. They know exactly what they’re doing. We simply carried on working around them.”
As with their previous buildings, the third is a temporary aluminium construction with a PVC inflatable roof which is light and airy. The team at Mac’s Trucks uses a diesel heater in the winter months and generally finds it a productive working environment all year round.
Mac’s Trucks has an excellent relationship with all of the truck manufacturers. These types of bonds also grow stronger by working side-by-side which, in this case, the instant building will allow.
MD Alec McDade said “I work with Jason who is very pleasant and I really like the way everyone works together. When you have a fast-moving business like ours - which includes a growing team, apprentices, product development and with huge commodities like trucks and cranes, space is always going to be at a premium so that’s where Smart-Space step in and help us”
You can fid out more about Mac's Trucks on the Mac's website.
Download Mac's Trucks Case Study
Third workshop solution for fast-growing Mac’s Trucks
Smart-Space provides a genuinely good quality product and they do exactly what they say they will.
The fact that we are talking about building number four speaks for itself.
Andy Hall, Technical Director Mac's Trucks