Episode 5 - "Innovation for Aviation": Inside Mallaghan with John Cameron & Joe Griffith

Matthew Weitzel: 0:16

This episode of the GSE podcast is brought to you by Xcēd ground support equipment leasing your trusted partner for GSE solutions. We specialize in tailored operating leases for ground handlers and airlines, offering top-notch equipment and flexible terms that suit your needs. Partner with the industry leaders like Mallaghan, and we're committed to bringing you new equipment offerings that keep your operations running smoothly and efficiently. Choose Xcēd for competitive rates and exceptional customer service, visit xcedgse.com today and soar to new heights with Xcēd ground support equipment leasing. All right, well, welcome to the GSE podcast. I am in Newnan, Georgia at Mallaghan, US headquarters. And I'm joined by John Cameron and Joe Griffith. How you guys doing?

Joe Griffith: 1:17

Well, how are you?

John Cameron: 1:18

Great, Matt, welcome to my lines.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:20

Thank you so much. I got a tour from Joe. And I got to see the facility. It's a really nice facility you got here and can't wait to kind of dive in and talk to you guys about about Mallaghan and kind of the history behind you know how this came to be from Northern Ireland to the United States.

John Cameron: 1:38

Looking forward 10 months. That's a great story. I hope so.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:42

Yeah, so who's going to tell that story?

John Cameron: 1:45

Hey, I'll do it I'm the guy with a funny accent I suppose. So I will lead on that so I think you sort of highlighted that in your your posts ahead of time it's it's a family business and a very much started out as a family business it's it's now a second generation Marla and family that that the two principal shareholders. But Ronan and Niall are the two the two brothers now that own and operate Milan, but their father Terry was the was the guy who started the business and Terry and his whole family were very much a suppose of that entrepreneur mind and stuff and and had been involved in different parts of the engineering industry and the background story that everybody loves to tell as Terry was on his way to Europe and to Spain on holiday one day, and as he was getting ready to disembark the play, and he saw the ground operations going on, and all the little vehicles coming out to service the aircraft. And he just had the idea that, hey, there's a couple of machines there tend to do the same thing. I wonder if I could come up with one machine that would do the whole thing and one turn and there was born Malahide, and they went away, they put together the very original product, which was I think, the LBT, 90, and it was a kind of sort of tractor conveyor type arrangement. And that really was the company born from that. And the two brothers, obviously, as they grew up, became very much entrenched in the business with with their father and yeah, that's the that's the background to and that was probably back and probably 1990. Hence the LBT. 90 acronym.

Matthew Weitzel: 3:28

Oh, okay,

John Cameron: 3:29

that's where the 90 Yeah, so, you know, that really was their, their breakthrough into the end of the GSE market. And I think, you know, they've pretty much they've pretty much pushed forward and taken the company forward since that point. So it's, yeah, it's it's 30 years plus now. And obviously, you know, obviously, sadly, their father passed away a few years ago now, but Ron and I are very much carrying the torch, the family name and very much family values as they as they drive the business forward, which makes it a fun place to be around, you know, yeah, you

Matthew Weitzel: 4:02

can tell to great culture that you'll have here just from walking around. So when did you start with metal hinge on

John Cameron: 4:09

me, I joined them back and started 2012. So I'm relatively new when when you speak to some of the people that have been in this industry a long time, but I'm an engineer by background. I am an electrical and electronic engineer by by academic qualification, although it seems a lifetime ago that that I was poring over schematics and circuits and stuff. I spent a good portion of my my early career in fact, 20 years plus in oil and gas industry, offshore oil and gas and always around equipment always around manufacturing and servicing. And so it was a relatively easy transition, I suppose oil and gas as our 24/7 365 A day a year industry and very much have sidestepped into an industry it's very, very similar. And even the nature of the customers, you know, oil and gas as sort of dominated by those kind of Big Blue Chip, Big Blue Chip multinationals and stuff. And we know when we come into this airline sector, that there's some very big dominant players as well. So it was a nice switch for me. From a lifestyle point of view, I'd been away from the UK for about 12 years, at accumulated three kids on my travels. And so it was just a good point for me to return and mutual friend that introduced me to Ronan. And yeah, way over the course of a couple of months, that became that there was actually a genuine opportunity to join them. And I've never looked back, if I'm honest with you earlier, you enjoy it.

Matthew Weitzel: 5:51

It's a what is your title here, I'm sorry.

John Cameron: 5:53

So title now as a Chief Operating Officer, so I recent change to my title, just in the last day, actually, in the last few weeks. So really, I get to do the fun part of looking after all our production operations, both here in Yunnan and by UK and Northern Ireland, and our engineering or supply chain health and safety, that type of thing. So I suppose really anything that's maybe less forward facing now, obviously, you know, I've spent a lot of years on on sales and commercial development side, but I'm happy to pass that mantle on to Joe here and let him pick it up. And then I probably look a little bit more at their site, operational side of the business and making sure that we get there, we get the product. So to our customers, you know,

Matthew Weitzel: 6:39

yeah, that's important. And so in Joe, that's now your job. That's great. Yeah, the facility is really

Joe Griffith: 6:42

Yeah, no, I get to get to pick it up. John's left some mighty big shoes to fill. So no, I joined Mallaghan and 2017. Prior to that, I started at Delta in 2007 as a mechanic nice. You obviously do a lot of production here. Sounds like it and worked my way up through through the GSE organization for them, eventually going into the engineering and project management and fleet work. And that's that's where I met John John was calling on Delta to start supplying Malahide equipment into them and developed, developed a friendship with him. And he started talking about kind of the growth of Malahat the story of malah when you know, we they turned out a lot of units, a lot of that stuff, you know, it gets had a good reputation for quality. That's why we're we were looking at him but you started talking about kind of assembled here. Right. But I think you're telling me that a the the growth of the business and where they wanted to take it. And one thing led to another and I tell people that I left a fortune 100 company to work for a family owned Irish company. I don't know who's crazy here. But yeah, it's it's so that was 2017 joined in 2017. And John and I sat at a at a picnic table with some folding chairs and a big giant empty building here at noon. And and a lot of sleepless days and nights and everything else that went into it. But really a labor of love grew really grew up from the ground up, we created a culture, we took the Mallaghan family culture, instilled it here and then brought kind of a, a new a new way forward for our for our factory here and grew it to what it is today. lot of the fabrication happens in Northern Ireland, is that correct? Yeah, so all of our raw metal work is still done out of our headquarters in Northern Ireland. And as we were discussing earlier, you know, that's, that's due in part to 10s of millions of dollars or pounds of investment in machinery and equipment and facilities to process the metal work and, you know, 30 years of knowledge accumulated to put that stuff together. And it's also it's advantageous, because, you know, it's where our engineering or design engineering offices are headquartered. So all of that metal work gets processed there. And then we move it on on a very regular cadence of delivery to Newnan through the port of Savannah. And that's, that's how we feed this factory. So all the raw metal work comes in, we shake out the container, it's like a giant Erector Set, nuts, bolts and everything and to try to do your best to put it together and get it out the door.

Matthew Weitzel: 9:32

Yeah, and it also allows you imagine to get a consistent quality product that's the exact same as it isn't in Europe as it is here. Just maybe different chasse ease and stuff like that, obviously, because of the trucks that we kind of discussed how they're a little bit different here in the United States than they are in Europe, but let's great so I think Joe, you're gonna give us a story right? Like this is we're gonna get a good GSE story out of you. Yeah, no, before we get before we get too technical here. We don't want to get too far down the road before we get going. It's doing most

Joe Griffith: 10:00

of our most of our stories aren't aren't for, for the do they usually happen in Vegas? Anywhere, just anywhere? Typical mountain way. But no, um, you know, we, as we said, we started this factory in 2017. And we had a lot of support from some of our very experienced subject matter experts to come over from Ireland and engineers. And you know, a lot of expertise came over and one of the one of the young men came over to help us kind of train this, this team here and get him stood up was a guy by the name of Shane McMahon. And he came over and spent the first really the first three to four months here in America consistently and helping get our get our teams up to speed and brilliant young man, fell in love with America and fell in love with what we were doing here wanted to be a part of what we were creating, and went back home and talked about kind of what he wanted to do, and why he wanted to do it. And he ultimately fell victim to suicide. And that that was as a family owned business and being very close with all of our colleagues. And, you know, ultimately, friends, it was hugely impactful to the business. And left a mark, his father actually is one of our senior leaders of production in Ireland. And so that left a very big mark on our company. And so what we, as as part of our five year anniversary of being in America last year, we wanted to remember Shane and do something in his honor. So we actually kicked off charity golf tournament, and that became a, a, you know, labor of love, really, it's something that that we had talked about doing obviously, there was a period of time there between 2017 and 2022. That was called The Forgotten years. But but really, it worked out well five years anniversary came up, we got the tournament up, we raised over, over I believe the final figure was around $15,000 for suicide awareness. And it was through gracious support of partners and sponsors and exceed being one of them. And that really became a resounding success and is talked about pretty much everywhere we go we always hear about the golf tournament and all the fun that was had and you know, the the lack of golf that was played or good game it was. But but really, it left a mark. So we decided to make it an annual thing. And, you know, again, you guys have graciously supported us this year and the cause as a as a presenting sponsor for the Shane McMahon celebration of life the night before the golf tournament. So really, really excited for it. So you know, the Malahat shamrock classic we were we intend on putting on every year in October. So that's, that's our GSE sorry, that's, that's the

Matthew Weitzel: 13:18

not too good one. So that happens here in Atlanta. Yep. And October weather is beautiful. It is. I mean, that's the best time to have it. So that'll be great. Yeah, we'll be there exceed we'll be there. Like you said, we'll be sponsoring it. So we'll definitely see you guys then. And I'm a terrible golfer. You're in good. Just awful. went and played with Luke, and you know, one of your sales account managers? Yep. And, yeah, he was like, Well, you just keep going. And I was like, yeah, do you know,

Joe Griffith: 13:49

he's a fine want to talk about?

Matthew Weitzel: 13:52

He's like, I'm proud of you. You just keep going, you know, no matter how bad you are. And I'm like, yeah, no, I you know, it's pretty good.

Joe Griffith: 13:57

So we were really excited. I mean, the the presenting sponsors for last year were Delta and atrust, and waters, truck and tractor. And those are good sponsors. Very, very, very good sponsors, very good partners for us. And they've graciously agreed to do it this year. And you guys have graciously agreed to be the presenting sponsor for the first Shane's celebration of life the night before. So it's grown just tremendously. And the interest level has been as amazing this year. So it's something we welcome. You know, even some of our competitors have reached out and saying, Hey, can can we come be a part of it, and it's not about competitive, it's, it's about raising money for a cause something that was hugely impactful. So really, really looking forward to this year's tournament.

Matthew Weitzel: 14:44

Let's good. It was an unexpected story, but a good one, and I appreciate you sharing that. And I'm glad that we can, we can help out with that cause so thank you. Thanks. Great. So let's talk about what do you bring into the GSE Expo this year, guys?

Joe Griffith: 14:57

Yeah, so I didn't I didn't come I've heard earlier but my role, I'm the commercial manager for the Americas. So I oversee the sales and service teams, spare parts, anything kind of, as John said, He covers the back of house and I cover the front of the house. And so this year is show is is obviously going to be heavily focused on electric. So we will be bringing some some really innovative products, we're launching a brand new product at the show, obviously electric and we're also bringing an electrified version of our of our malha and continental stair, which is, you know, a big deal. A lot of a lot of customers are asking for that. So we're launching that into North America using lithium battery technology. And I'm really excited. And then one of our one of our Mallaghan Ti 8200 di series is going to be out there with us. So wow, so you're bringing some pretty big

Matthew Weitzel: 15:53

equipment we are we are we like

John Cameron: 15:55

to go heavy on we like to go heavy on product. No. Okay, great show at Jordan Jordan, the team there are well versed and obviously, you know, talking to good talk when we get out there, but it's, it's gonna be great. I think everybody knows the industry is obviously heavily biased now towards that electrification piece. And the industry has made some pretty bold statements on where it wants to go over the next 10 or 20 years. And, you know, like, like everybody else, we want to be playing our part and achieving some of those targets. So you know, whether it's in some of these new products that we're developing are taking some of our existing products and moving them into the electric era. And that's, that's really where all the that's where all the heavy lifting has gone on. But within our engineering and our product development at the moment, and it shows always a great opportunity to showcase some of that some new stuff and no different than any other year, I think it's always good where where you have a chance to put a new product out there. It's good for us in the sense that we've we've worked it out with one of our key partners. And so again, it's a nice development story. You know, I've said so often, it's often challenging for some of the manufacturers to make sure they had all the right points whenever they launch a new product. But if you're doing it with with a customer that's happy to share their operational wants, then it means that you probably get the thing to market in a much healthier case and a much quicker timescale. So yeah, there's been a lot of fun developing it. And obviously now it's it's there, it's the cherry on top part isn't that it's putting that out there show and letting people come and see it and touch it.

Joe Griffith: 17:35

And Now's the fun part.

John Cameron: 17:37

Yeah, very much. So.

Matthew Weitzel: 17:38

So was there like a unit like that was kind of low hanging fruit that was easier to electrify than others? Or, you know, you're you're not even allowed to say like, what what we're gonna see in Vegas yet. And I should just go ahead and sidestep this question.

John Cameron: 17:53

No, well, I think I think, you know, Joe talked about a passenger stare mean, you know, electric, and I'm sure, and I've listened to some of the earlier podcasts. And, you know, we're all in a similar boat. Most of us have had electric products in our portfolio for a good number of years. I mean, we've, you know, our electric steer and other guys has been around for probably 10 years plus now and but clearly the market was, was only looking for it in a fragmented way by bike ban. And it's only really been over the last sort of three to four years that there's been this real push to hit some of the, some of the, you know, the net zero goals that our key customers and the industry set in for itself. So, you know, this conversion process for us on some of our existing products has been happening for a while now. And as they as they, you know, as as the market demand increases, then obviously, the the additional horsepower we put into the conversion has developed naturally, but when something new comes along, obviously, you still like that moment of pulling back the curtain. There. There's so that's my roundabout way, man. Yeah, you'll just have to wait another week. So we got to Vegas. Okay.

Matthew Weitzel: 19:02

Yeah, I was just, you know, it's there's other manufacturers that have products that seem to be much easier to electrify then the kind of portfolio that you all have. Yes. Yeah. So I'm interested to see Do you know what booth you are? I can't remember off the top of my head. All right. Well, they're gonna be outside. You're gonna be you can't you can't miss I won't

Joe Griffith: 19:22

miss us. Yeah, just listen for the just listen for the Irish band and the laughter Okay,

Matthew Weitzel: 19:27

we're gonna have an Irish band. We are no way. Yeah,

John Cameron: 19:30

we are. Joe has been practicing for for months.

Matthew Weitzel: 19:34

All right, we're gonna have like green beer and like, just do the whole thing.

Joe Griffith: 19:38

It's gonna be proper.

Matthew Weitzel: 19:40

I can't I can't wait for this. So yeah, that'd be great. All right. So let's talk. Let's talk deicers. Sounds good. So do you all do a narrowbody deicers in a wide body deicer. Or I just don't honestly know. Yeah.

Joe Griffith: 19:53

So So So currently, we offer kind of one product and it's and it's sized as a main line. wide body capable di so we call that our Mallaghan 8200. Which is roughly equates out to about 2200 gallons a capacity 47 foot reach. And open basket closed basket forced air non forced air single operator capable. So that's kind of the current offering. And then, you know, John's leading the engineering and r&d teams. And there's always you know, we're always looking at new opportunities to expand that product as we, as we kind of focus our product offerings into kind of key areas and de ICERs is one of them.

Matthew Weitzel: 20:37

Yeah, yeah. So I've heard good things about your di, sir. I just wasn't sure. Like I saw on the website that you only offered one di sir, but I wasn't sure. Like, so it's mainly being used, as you know, for I'm guessing, a wide body

Joe Griffith: 20:50

operation pan operations, mainline operations. But you know, there's, there's, as John said, you know, we we develop products all the time around, what our key partners are looking forward to suit their operations. So, you know, that's, that's something that we're always looking at, and especially as we kind of focus on on that offering. Yeah,

John Cameron: 21:10

like the company strapline, I suppose Mallaghan innovation for aviation is something like, company still holds very dear. And, and it's, and its outlook and strategy going forward. And as Joe says, you know, even where we are active in a particular part of the markets, or the ice, and you know, we've, we've had that product out for a good number of years now, and both then and the rest of the world UK, in Europe, and obviously, now here in North America, it's been very, very well received. But you know, we always know that there, there are other opportunities out there as well. So, you know, wherever we can look at to see that maybe as that either as the either room in the market, or is there a need in the market to develop a new product or put something else out there. So you know, where we're always actively looking at that. And again, we're, we're well backed up geo referenced earlier that our engineering spike and then Ghana, we carry a pretty large engineering team. And so because of that, we have that ability to every year look at where we want to push some of the products or even bring something new out there. So it's a good, good place to be and, you know, we can we can react pretty quickly, if we see, we see something out there that maybe gives us another another chance to move in that direction. Yes,

Matthew Weitzel: 22:27

just where you want to, like focus your efforts, and and

Joe Griffith: 22:29

what your customers are asking for. No, and they and, you know, for being a family owned company, and you know, we we absolutely do adhere to the to the strap line of innovation, I mean, we're invested millions of dollars every year and innovating our products and offerings. So,

John Cameron: 22:44

yeah, know that at the DHS market, it's obviously it's it's very much, you know, we have a relatively wide portfolio of products, you know, and, you know, people know us for, for a lot of different things. And but different regions have different expectations. Also, you know, I mean, there's obviously here in North America, particularly, and your northern states and stuff that the need for de ICERs is, is paramount from an operational point of view, and other parts of the world, maybe less, so it tends to be driven by well, did we have a bad winter last year or, you know, so it's a little bit more fluctuation. So, you know, a lot of the development work that we've put into our product over the last decent product over the last couple of years is very much been biased towards our market over here. And as Joe talks about the fact now that we can do single operator version, you know, we've really focused now on on a single engine version version now as well. So our original product offering had had the truck engine and a rear engine, but we've sort of moved away from that now as well. And again, that's that whole drive towards sort of efficiency and reducing fuel consumption and the leg. So now it's a great product to put you know, and I think it's, it's one way I always like to, to use the Vegas show and other shows to really talk there because it's a very specialized part of the industry. And some really great technology and that part of it, you know, if you if you think of the the amount of engineering technology in our da sir, compared to, you know, some of the more simpler GSE products, that's a fun one to be around. It's a very specialized team of people. I find I take my hat off to anybody that works in that, yeah, that environment, it's such fast might want to get up and go spray airplanes, you know?

Matthew Weitzel: 24:35

Yeah. So catering trucks, you do catering trucks, we will do a few of those. Yeah. And Joe is kind of teaching me about catering trucks a little bit because my knowledge as is very minimal when it comes to catering trucks, but I can admit that and so Joe has kind of given me the the brief on those. And it seems like you know, you all really have some innovative approaches. On, on, you know what you've done to the catering truck to make it, you know what it is today, I guess in the leader in the market?

Unknown: 25:08

Yeah. And, you know, I think, I think fundamentally when a lot of people hear the Mallaghan name or the Mallaghan brand, high lift trucks or, you know, catering and obviously very much part of that, but cabin service cabin clean and trucks, medical or PRM lifts, you know, but more popular in Europe where there's maybe less board and bridge activity, and there's maybe more remote stand operations where where you're trying to get PRN passengers up onto the aircraft and stuff. But anything on a set of scissors, I suppose is probably the better way of looking at it. And then, you know, we really have it's, it's, it's a product that really has become, I suppose for a lot of our customers that de facto industry standard for, for high left vehicles. And, you know, it's been helped to stand up the factory here in Yunnan. So, you know, the majority of our product that got us in to the US market initially was was our high left offering. So our catering and, you know, Joe talked about calling on delta that was really around their cabin service vehicles or their cabin cleaning trucks. So that high left product gave us the foot print to come in to North America and stand up the factory here in Yunnan. But what it also does is give you the opportunity then to go in and talk to the same customers about other other products and but yeah, the halo of market, you know, where we I suppose in relative terms, we are seen as the as probably the the industry leader, our market share probably reflects that a little bit as well. And we've been very fortunate and that most of our partners over here, our end customers and staff have been have been very open to introducing some new technologies that that, you know, either legislation has driven around controlled approach and that type of thing, or, or whether just the fire, but the, you know, one of the big things as also, as you know, we want to make sure that we're putting the best product out there into the market, but we sometimes have a wide range of customer needs, and everybody thinks they've come up with the secret sauce to have the right specification of trucking stuff. And you know, our engineering team is very much able to cope with that. But again, one of the things that that really helped us drive reliability and quality into the product is consistency of building these machines as well. So a lot of what Joe and his team now we're doing are going out and speak their customers and saying, Yeah, you may want this bail and not whistle on your vehicle. But hey, we can tell you a good spec that will fit all your operational needs. And what that then does is let us start to think about well, here we can introduce some stock programs and our production plan, hold vehicles on hand. And that then gives people the ability for for startups or other type of fast star designs and stuff. And that's really, you know, it's an educational thing on both sides, we need to understand we need to understand the customer's needs. But equally, if we can be, you know, willing to share sort of best practices, and then that gives flexibility on both sides. And that's, you know, as a manufacturer, we like nice smooth production runs, you know, that the lumpiness and variability of individual customers with individual tastes is, is it's more difficult to manage, not that we, we don't want to do it, the you know, our business has been born out of being flexible to customers. But as we have grown, you know, it's an unspoken fear, and maybe a kind of market leading position, you can drive some of the narrative. And what we're trying to do now is, you know, tell people more about, here's all the good things we put on these vehicles. And here, if you're if that suits your operation, what we can think about now is, is holding some vehicles for you. And just if it helps, then your operation yourself to be more flexible, then it's a win win for everybody. You know,

Matthew Weitzel: 29:12

I completely agree, if we can get, you know, just even a couple of customers using the same specs, it would be fantastic, right? And it's the dream, it is the dream. But it doesn't make sense, though, because there's customers that have maybe figured something out and gotten to the point where they're adding this option every single time. It's been it's a great option for them. And then you know, just educating you know, maybe another airline like hey, listen, they're using this and this is this is the reason they're using it right and so it makes sense to me that that you all obviously want to try to do that but it also helps the customers as well. Does it does.

John Cameron: 29:47

It really does and you know, we understand now you know people that you know thankfully the industry has has come back pretty hard after after, you know the recovery from COVID and stuff and you know people All right now, and it's it's great to see, but people have quite aggressive expectations around product lead time. And all they're asked, and you know, we all know that there have been some supply chain challenges for everybody.

Matthew Weitzel: 30:14

Are you serious? You didn't hear? You don't hear? First I've heard Yeah.

John Cameron: 30:21

So again, where we can, you know, consolidate on on some of the features and some of the functions and some of the specifications that ultimately will help I believe our customer in the long run. And, you know, it's not that we don't want to give them that nuance, I've been able to put something that is important to their operation on but where we can standardize a little bit more, and I know, there's a lot of talk in the industry about, you know, we need to get together more and manufacturers and and customers and all try and work together. But gee, we need to stop running for five minutes to allow us to do that sometime. Yeah, so it's just working with us working with our partners, and just trying to find the, I suppose the best solution and what optimizes for both parties, I guess, is what I'm trying to find, you know,

Unknown: 31:09

you touched on it and put it but a lot of a lot of the alignment is coming from discussions with the end users and bringing them together and the customers and our partners and letting them talk amongst themselves and look at how each of them are doing their respective operations, obviously protecting their own secret sauce per se, but but when it comes to the GSE, aligning the different outline elements of their specification, and really for us it's it's hugely beneficial as a manufacturer to have them come together and talk and align that spec and talk about best practices and services and highs and lows and things that can be done to improve so you know, we try to drive that as much as possible is to bring them together and let them speak to each other and then we're just there to be the note takers really?

Matthew Weitzel: 32:00

Yeah, maybe we can get them all out golfing at the tournament.

Joe Griffith: 32:04

Never usually.

Matthew Weitzel: 32:05

No that doesn't doesn't work like that.

John Cameron: 32:07

The Golf the Golf has its place and like any but I just sometimes think that the stress of trying to navigate 18 holes without without either losing your mind or losing all your golf balls, in my case usually challenge that, you know,

Matthew Weitzel: 32:23

it's like a couple of boxes. Yeah, just Yeah, it's huge. So that way and then because that way, if I hit it in the woods or something, nobody's waiting on me right? Or somebody else they don't mind playing with me as much when I do stuff like that. So

John Cameron: 32:35

my thing is never needed the car girl to deliver. Coltrane gets another box of balls or slaver balls, he

Matthew Weitzel: 32:42

needs you to run back to the clubhouse actually, we're gonna drink need a new shirt. Got. So alright, sorry. It's so alright. Water service trucks. You got those? You got lab trucks?

Joe Griffith: 32:55

Yep, yep, lavatory service trucks, and water service trucks. So our standard offering or our initial offering was was vacuum. And then we also offer gravity trucks for the for the lavatory service. And then and then the water truck really is just, you know, taking the same tank technology and obviously in a cleaner manner. Yeah. And, and taking the baffle out and offer and so what it does is it gives the customers a very common platform between the two from parts and support standpoint. So there's very little difference actually, between the two products bar the baffle in the tank

Matthew Weitzel: 33:34

in or the tanks built in your facility as well.

Joe Griffith: 33:38

Yeah, so we do all everything, you know, on our trucks, the vast majority of what you see on our trucks, we fabricate in house, especially the steel work. So those tanks are manufactured in house cut on our lasers welded by our welders and then either shipped across the street for European assembly or stripped across shipped across the pond for for American assembly. And then, you know that way again, as Johnny alluded to, it gives us a good consistency in what we're what we're doing in our fabrication side of production. And it gives the customer a very common platform from from support. And training

Matthew Weitzel: 34:15

does seem to be a big point of difference from Mallahan that you all kind of do all your own fabrication. All this stuff is yours. Yep, it's coming out of one facility in Northern Ireland. So the same stuff that they're getting in Europe is the same stuff they're getting here. It's just being assembled here. But it all comes from over there. Yep. It's a very consistent product. And I think that's just an important thing that people need to understand in the high quality that's coming out of that and that's the reason you're able to provide the kind of quality products you have.

John Cameron: 34:43

I think I think when a lot of customers come you know, to our Northern Ireland facility, I think that's one of the standout things that that they mostly comment on because you know, there is there is and both business models work so there's there's no one right or wrong way of doing things but I'll other people now, you know, you'll find, outsource maybe the fabrication side of it, and bring that in just through supply chain partners and then tend to just concentrate on the assembly of the product. But we have always been that sort of raw metal through to finish product. And there's very little we don't do on site other than the likes of galvanizing and stuff where we where we put out, but everything else we do, whether it's aluminum, or stainless steel, or mild steel, all of those from a small component to a large set of scissors to even the box bodies that you see on our catering and cleaning trucks, those walls and all of that are made in house. So we have, you know, we buy in the rules of GRP, the foam insulation, stainless steel plywood, we make all those panels in house, we've CNC routers, and glue and machines. And so we very much like to control our supply chain, it gives us that feeling that we own the quality of it, the reliability of it. And we also we know when we can make things and we don't find ourselves suddenly at the bottom of somebody else's queue. Yeah. And so that has always been the mantra to, if we can do it and house and, you know, Joe talked about, you know, the investment as that there's a lot of highly spec, technical metal processing machinery and Dungannon that allows us not only to to supply our headquarters from an assembly point of view, but we can then take all those components, we can put them in shipping containers, and they can be here in Noonan in a matter of weeks. And you know, we're painting and assembling here. And as you see it, then it's consistency of products or, you know, a fewer some of our customers work in multiple markets. So if you buy a water truck from US and Europe and you buy a water truck from really the only difference you'll see in it probably is the chassis sitting underneath it. Everything else has come out the same factory designed the same way. But same way. And again, it's that

Matthew Weitzel: 37:08

well, that helps from a parts perspective as well, I'm sure.

John Cameron: 37:14

Yep, it does. And, again, our ability to support in the aftermarket comes from the fact that if someone has an operational need, whether it's a purchase part, or indeed a manufactured part, we have much more ownership of being able to get something to them quickly rather than relying on on a third party maybe helping us out when we're in a we're behind a wall or

Matthew Weitzel: 37:35

exactly.

Joe Griffith: 37:36

Yeah, man, I just want to comment, I don't know if you picked up on it. But you see what John just did there is he said aluminum, there was a purpose for you know, placating the Americans. It's usually aluminium, but but he actually Oh, no, he changed. I gotta give him credit on that one.

John Cameron: 37:53

I can only do two things, I can switch the date. So I can do 831 And I can do aluminum. Beyond that man. I'm born and bred UK native, I do all the wrong things all the time. You know, I did Kalos not patterns, not feet and inches, but what I'm trying. So it looks

Matthew Weitzel: 38:12

like a lot of your products are built on the scissor lifts. Right? That's kind of your bread and butter. So what makes your scissor lifts different than everybody else's in the marketplace? Like why? Why are all your products that you know, have those scissor lifts so popular?

Joe Griffith: 38:27

No, it's just the same thing. Again, it's the quality, it's you know, we a lot of attention to detail, we engineer that product from the ground up we from the scissors, the subframe, the crossmembers everything is designed in house fabricated in house. And it leads to a very high quality product on the front end, very smooth, stable operation very reliable. And it goes out into customers operations and it provides them years of reliable service. So that's that's you know, we engineer that product, very heavy duty lot of lot of structural steel you saw in the scissors, the the thickness of the different steel plates. You know, we really take a lot of pride in that that's kind of our calling card is the is the scissor assembly. So that's led to, you know, a big following for our product globally. But but the growth in the Americas that we've talked about, but on top of that is technology. So it's again driving that innovation, it's using future proof technologies and controllers that allow customers to spec sensors and controlled approach systems, both at production and then upgrade in the field should their operations change so that that we try to build a product that's, that's future proofed and many ways so innovative at the time of production, but upgradable down the road. Gotcha.

John Cameron: 39:58

Yeah, no, the The scissors is, I suppose, one of the calling cards in some ways. So, you know, a lot of people, when you see a scissor product and different applications, not just GSE, it tends to be people by about a box action steel and maybe put some additional strengthening and stuff. And that, you know, irises are as a fully engineered product that's made out of plate, not box action. So we effectively construct the scissor out of steel plate and, you know, that strengthen that as the accuracy the steel that we're cutting, so, you know, geo referenced earlier, plate, lasers, tube lasers, all of that investment that's going on in our fabrication facility. And then the skill in our welding team in our welding operations, you know, an awful lot of our guys have been with us for 20 years plus, and that skill and knowledge and experience coupled with some mechanical aides and jigs and fixtures and stuff, they may make it a little easier for them. But you know, that skill and knowledge and consistency of product is what helps people become I suppose, dominant in their and their respective areas. And, you know, there's a lot of work going into the engineering of the product. And then there's a lot of pride goes into actually the quality of the build thereafter. And I think our our hope that's what what customers expect and receive from us, when they when they take a high lift truck off of the production line. Yeah,

Matthew Weitzel: 41:28

well, that's kind of what I think, you know, I've noticed when I walked around with Joe is just the the high level of quality that you all produce. And then, you know, one thing that you kind of went over that I found really interesting was like how there was no seams, and I want you to kind of dive into that real quick, as far as when you're catering trucks. Yeah, just because I found that to be really interesting. I know that and I thought that was,

Joe Griffith: 41:51

you know, having come from the operation side, you know, it's, it's probably not something that's commonly known but but you know, those those foods and cokes and different different soda products, as they're on those trucks, and they get damaged, inevitably, or freeze or brake, that that product leaks into the floor. And we have a extruded single piece of sheet metal or aluminum sheet that is laminated into the floor assembly. And what that does is provides a seamless surface that that doesn't allow that stuff to leak into the into the framework or into the paneling of the truck and ultimately damages. So it's a very small detail, but it's hugely impactful to the life of the trucks because if you looked at older high lift trucks that had you know, welded floors or you know, gaps in the weld had seams in the plank, that you would have tons of corrosion in the base frames of those trucks. So it's just a small detail that leads to a much longer and longevity in the product.

Matthew Weitzel: 42:58

DOD buses here in the US,

John Cameron: 43:00

we we would offer buses here in the US. I mean, it's, it's, it's, again, it's back to airport operations in different regions of the world. So you know, I am a regular traveler to this part of the world and invariably when I land that whatever airport in North America, there's a board and bridge gets me off and so you know, straight away I'm in the terminal Belden, if you go into some of our major European operations, airport operations, maybe just due to the size and scale and availability of gates at some of these major hubs, there's a lot of remote stand operations going on. And you know, I'm sure all of you guys have have experienced that coming off the coming off the aircraft and getting loaded on to the shuttle buses to take you from the aircraft to the terminal building so that that's the bus that we make we make our passenger bus that that shuttles people from the terminal to the to the get to the to the aircraft. And as I say in North America, absolutely. There are there are remote stand operations happen here and there. It is not as prevalent. They're not as prevalent mod and so you know, what we find is probably more more in our UK, European Middle Eastern markets. It's there that it's a much more it's a much more accepted modern practice. Sure. So we see it not and again on that side, you know, that product was developed with initially a diesel powertrain. Yeah, but as the rest of the industry has migrated, we are now probably primarily offered normally on an electric powered round bearish. Yes. So again, you know, lithium battery powered and at Sam Yeah, it's again it's just it's just another part of the product portfolio to beautiful

Matthew Weitzel: 44:52

bus. I mean, that's what caught my eye that's really don't want to bring it up because it's really nice looking bus

John Cameron: 44:57

has and it's slightly different, I think You know, we, when we look at our I suppose our overall product portfolio, a lot of the machines or a lot of the equipment we make is what I would call service vehicles. So, you know, the type of ones that probably as a passenger and aircraft, you don't really give a second glance to, then I wonder if that's my suitcase coming up my mountain conveyor? Or is that my case in a bike cart? But yeah, you know, the bus is still very much part of the passenger experience. And I'm not saying it's the, you know, when you're ready to go on vacation, the bus journey from the aircraft to the to the terminal is probably not the highlight of it. But it is part of the passenger experience. So I suppose when we built that or develop that product, you did have to think a lot more about the aesthetics of it, the fit, finish the air conditioning. Yeah, because because it is, it's not, it's not, it's not a bunch of RAM guys doing what they do on a day to day basis, it's very much around the paying customer coming off long flight and getting an A boss and really just want to get there as efficiently and reliably as possible. So they can go start their business trip, or their vacation or whatever. So it gave us a different way to think and obviously very much as you sort of pointed out there, it's even the aesthetics of the vehicle were you know, we wanted it to be something that looked like a modern vehicle that sort of looked attractive on their arm. Yeah.

Matthew Weitzel: 46:24

How many passengers is that?

John Cameron: 46:26

Sort of do I mean, you know, I gotta give a solid. There's a guideline how you size up, but there's probably up to about 110 pounds now. You know, that's based on the way I added calculates, yeah. 50 To view margin, if everybody's gonna carry on and stuff. It becomes 110 People might be a little tight. Yeah, might be a little tight. But it's, yeah, that's the ideas that sort of belt around. You know, we see a lot in Europe where you're getting a lot of those short haul aircraft and then they're shuttling a lot of a lot of passengers so typically, a couple of buses would come out and the plane an aircraft and get every arc into the terminal building

Matthew Weitzel: 47:04

into the passenger stairs. So those are motorized passenger stairs,

Unknown: 47:08

both motorized and tillable. Oh, okay. Yeah, we offer both so the towables probably more prevalent in Europe. Here in North America, we we we, Mal Han does a lot of the motorized self propelled passenger stairs both on commercial truck chassis is as well as our own chassis. Well, you okay, you have your own chassis. Yeah, so we so a lot of our what we call our purpose built products, we would we would have our own kind of industrial chassis that underpins it. So the likes of the passenger stair are bendy belt product, aircraft maintenance lift trucks, we will use our modular self propelled chassis that can use internal combustion engine electric to underpin those products so we've we've seen a lot of growth as John said, you know, we start with the catering trucks but that's been a big growth for us is kind of the passenger stair in the aircraft maintenance lift truck using that self propelled chassis. And for us that's that's an insulation to kind of the potential supply chain disruptions with commercial truck chasse ease and availability is is we can offer a product that is Mallin through and through so you're not you're not having to rely on a Isuzu or Ford or Freightliner support you you come to us and then we can support that product for you. Gotcha.

Matthew Weitzel: 48:28

Y'all don't do lab or water carts. Is that correct? Just trucks

Unknown: 48:32

No, we like we like something that's motorized. So you know very much our whole GSE offering you know even even a turbo passenger steroids I mean, most of them are now fitted with either an internal combustion engine or really nowadays almost all all electric and so the turbo part is more to do with the fact that you can hatch it by tractor and move it around the airport but the old gate operation is it's still it's still a powered or or motorized function to get it to and from the aircraft. So every everything we tend to do has has its inbuilt power trained to move itself if you know what I mean. And so no carts non motorized equipment has just never been has never been our as never been heard I suppose our path forward there's a lot of very good people moving around in that market. And yeah, I suppose we have become known for for the motorized product and and probably now when I you know, I've been with a company for 12 years, and we're very much known for our high left product, and that would have been heavily biased, our overall output would have been heavily heavily biased to that high left but through product development and product innovation in our we've probably know reached a point where high left's are probably half or half our output on a per annum basis and then the other GSC products that we manufacture take up the other take up the other 50% of our overall sales and product output. A year. So that's a nice balance to have. And as Joel points so, you know, we do we do on our high left still very much rely on our partners and and commercial truck market. So you know, here in North America have sort of Ford and international and the Sousou. And Freightliner very much form the foundation of almost all our commercial truck mounted pieces of equipment. But we do still have a significant portion of our GSE products, including the boss, so even the boss itself, that's a male and chassis, you know, but our passenger stare, our maintenance lift trucks, and some of our medical lifts, all of them are on our purpose belt, Milan chassis, so it does give you a nice balance. And as I say, our production lanes back in Ireland and even here, we tend to split between high lift trucks and Gia other GSE products. So the ideas is you want to be able to support your customers with with multi products or portfolios is particularly where some of the big airlines need many different many different product offerings to keep their operations go. And so no, it's it's a nice, it's a nice suite of machines to have. And obviously, what we're always trying to do is see well, what's what's the next best thing we can be we can be looking to develop, you know,

Matthew Weitzel: 51:24

so you Z ever been the belt? We did? So was there a belt loader before the Bendi belt, or was that kind of just

John Cameron: 51:33

No, we went all in we went? We went? Yeah, all right. When the deep end on that one? No, we had them again. And I think I mentioned earlier, you know, some of our best product development products have been where we have been in partnership with an end customer, we can say to us, hey, look, we've we've an operational challenge we're trying to solve here, we'd like to work with you and give you our input into your product development. And that that really helps not only make sure that we take many of the boxes that the product will need to half but you know, by the time we bring it out and get it into that kind of first article testing and all the rest, you know, a lot of the heavy lifting has been done because our end customer or potential end customer has been involved in the development phase. So the bendy belt was similar to that we had, we had a customer that we worked with over in Europe, and they expressed a desire to to really try and take that extendable belt technology into their operation. And clearly there were others in the market that were that were involved and producing some fine products, I have to say in that regard. But, you know, again, like we do with most of our products, we went away and looked at a way that we could do it and our mode of operation. So you know, other people use a lot of roller technology to provide that extendable belt, you know, we have, in some ways, maybe a more simpler, maybe more mechanical, conical, you know, chain driven continuous belt with flights rather than rollers. So just different way of doing the same kind of operation. But what we hope is that it brings some innovative features that that others weren't thinking about or didn't have on their own product. So yeah, and again, it's been a product it's been around for for probably 1011 12 You know we've we've had it and it's it's gone through various guises and reinventions and again it's it's still a product that I believe we will continue to reinvent and refine and obviously now that it's already moved on to an electrical product offerings so we can provide an electric Bandy about now and our at Sam Yeah, it's still still very much seen as a core product for us and you know, we still see great success and you know, not only in terms of people want electrification but you know, we've we talked about supply chain challenges and joked about it earlier, labor challenges are obviously another big another big industry another big industry standpoint at the moment and trying to bring new people in and particularly young people to come into our industry and I think a lot of what we have to do is use technology now to make it more attractive to people to come in you know, people don't want to think that they've had to say it a lifetime lift and heavy bags are moving heavy cargo or heavy freight and you know, technology now is available to to support art and make manual handling go away to some degree and the bendy belt and similar extendable belt products are are very much core to that and I think I think as as things move forward not only with electrification and not Net Zero goal but but you know, making things easier for the operator. So you know, some of that will be through innovation around reducing liftin and manual handling and stuff, other parts. And time will probably come through automation and semi autonomous or a tote. You know, there's a lot of buzzwords, obviously industry about where it may end up. And you know, we very much see that as part of our natural progression of product technology. But it's fun to be around, it's fun to think that you're making a difference to people's lives and around because undoubtedly, it is a hard life out there and all weathers and all temperatures and day and night operations and, you know, where, where we can provide some technology that maybe makes some of that a little easier for people in there. And we very much see it as being a win win, both for us as a manufacturer, and obviously, is that for the end user? Yeah, a lot

Matthew Weitzel: 55:57

of the end users are asking for telematics as well. So is that something that you all will will do for them like providing if they choose a provider? Will you all put it on to your trucks?

Joe Griffith: 56:07

Yeah, no, we, you know, our electrical infrastructure on all of our products, talked about a controller, but we have a network of data points that are available that if the customer or the end user has their own preferred system, we can integrate that system quite easily on to our products. And then we also have the availability to offer a Malahat system as built in from the from the production process, we can offer that system to them and we integrated into our customer care program to help them plan out you know, some of their maintenance events, schedule out proactive maintenance, but also reactive maintenance and troubleshooting the products that are in the field. When we integrate those systems, we were able to dial into the product, see the list of trouble codes or understand what what it was doing when it had an issue, and even enact changes to the system to address different operational profiles the customer may have. So telemetry we're launching later this year, we're launching our virtual troubleshooting platform, which will allow the end user to scan a QR code on any of their Malyon products and enter into a an essence of FaceTime and interactive FaceTime with Malyon technical support. And what that'll do is allow our subject matter experts here, both in Ireland and in America, to manipulate the screen highlight different areas that the on site technician, both mal Han or or the customers and help them troubleshoot their products. So between the the technology available through telemetry the technology available through to a virtual communication. It's really about trying to drive as much value into the post sale of the product and really bring a full circle value proposition for the customers both from the time they buy the product through the support and through the end of life. So all of those technology investments are going to be key for us.

Matthew Weitzel: 58:13

Do you all have parts here in the United States? Yep, yeah, no,

Joe Griffith: 58:16

we here here in the factory, we have an entire warehouse. Dedicated to spare parts, we look at that on a regular basis, we look at what is our current fleet offering or what is our current fleet exposure in the region, we look at where we're what we're offering, or what's coming into the region in the coming coming year coming period, we adjust the inventories appropriately. We also work with the different customers, some of the larger airlines have parts programs where we'll put together spare parts kits and get them out to them and in advance of a planned maintenance event. But we can support that all out of this facility, but also our headquarters, we have we have a massive inventory of parts available. And as John said, by controlling our supply chain and manufacturing a lot of that those parts on hand are the fabricated parts we can we can really offer a very aggressive lead times for most of the parts on your Malin equipment

Matthew Weitzel: 59:20

you'll have traveling technicians just in case we do some stuff out in the field happen we do

John Cameron: 59:25

we do we have some guys that just love that lifestyle of city to city and you know it's it's it can be both the troubleshooting part and but a lot more of it is along the front end stuff so when new equipment goes in, it's that commissioning and training and you know, operational support, maintenance support training, the trainer training, the maintenance shop on the ground, all that so we do a lot of stuff front end with our I suppose our service engineers they would be you know very much part of the fabric of as Joe talked about the post sale Little support. And all of those guys have. Most of them, I've spent a long number of years on the production floor know the product intimately. And you know, they're very much seen a very much CMOS as not being detrimental to salespeople here, but you know, they're very much your front end guys that very much drive the reputation and all the rest of it and into your end users operation and, you know, we sort of pride ourselves on some of the guys that are out there doing great work for us. It's it's tough life. Yeah, and you know, they cover cover a lot of miles, I suspect there's a lot of air miles accumulated and some of those guys, but no, they do a great job for us. And as I say, we, you know, we accept we're like anybody else, it's, it's, it's a piece of machinery, you know, eventually they something will give you trouble, something will wear out something will have a failure point. And I always think the strength of what you offer your customers is the acceptance that if that happens, it's how you react and how you support them. And I think what we want to do is just make sure that people feel that this jewel says if we can find it an easy way for them to seamlessly contact us whether it's virtually or over the phone, that we can give them that front end support, try and fix it there. And then but if we need to put some boots on the ground and stuff, we can do that quickly and backed up then by an inventory of parts and stuff that we that we keep here in Yunnan so

Matthew Weitzel: 1:01:34

yeah, well Xcēd is excited because we have some units coming down the line from you guys.

John Cameron: 1:01:40

You do? Yeah. Very excited. We're looking at that. The other they're coming not too not too far away,

Joe Griffith: 1:01:46

water truck met water truck.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:01:49

And then also 2024, obviously exactly more stuff coming as well. So we're very excited about that and having this partnership with you guys, and we appreciate it.

John Cameron: 1:01:59

No reciate the business, we always do we really do. We're working with you.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:02:03

What What else do we need to cover? What else you want to get out there?

Joe Griffith: 1:02:08

I would I would think probably the electric cabin service to our electric catering truck. Yeah, so

Unknown: 1:02:13

when I suppose one of the great one of the great sort of last untapped pieces of our product portfolio as as those electric vehicles that said on a commercial truck chassis. And you know, we were we've talked about our drive for electrification that's very much been those products that we have almost solely in our own control. So whether it be our Bandy belt, or passenger stairs or maintenance, lift trucks, anything that we can electrify ourselves, because they said on our purpose belt chassis, okay, we've obviously been able to migrate them quicker than the fact that where we have our commercial truck offerings, and that primarily will either be our de ICER product or our high lift products. So catering and cleaning, were very much dependent on the commercial truck market, bringing their product offering and one of the great things there is that you know, there's you know, you can see now just by reading industry press and stuff more so, the major truck manufacturers are either now putting an Eevee BV product out there onto the market or are certainly well into the development and getting ready to launch. So, you know, we we would like to retain our position as as as a market leader on high lift vehicles. And I think the way to do that is to strengthen our position through I suppose the fast deployment or be at the forefront of this BV electric truck electric catering truck electric come clean and truck. So we work with very good partners on the commercial truck side where where we're sort of heavily ended up product development at the moment. And I suspect that we'll be you mentioned 2024 there and what we want to do 2024 I suspect will will be our launch point for bringing that high left product to the to the market in terms of a fully fledged North American battery electric vehicle with a Mallaghan and scissor and Mr. Lang carbon on the on the top of that so we're really excited about Yeah, I think that's for us that you know, we've we've wanted to make sure that we pick the right partner and the right truck and you know, we we we have that in Europe. So we work we work with Volvo over in Europe and their product offering and what we want to do I talked about consolidation and consistency and all that so you know, we've we've a fantastic relationship with Volvo in Europe and we use their product on the Wii side there. And then here in North America, you know when we get into next year We obviously have a plan to launch the the Evie high left truck formula and also a not as an exciting time for us as sets as great a finite you know, it's it's one of those products that you know, we've it's more with our control we we can't be we you know we're not we're not a truck manufacturer so we rely on good partnerships there but I think one thing that we've been able to share is this real drive within our industry in aviation to head towards this net zero targets and so the truck manufacturers themselves have started understand hey, there's there's possibly a market that the that we weren't maybe putting as much attention to particularly where this Evie piece as as you know it's it's it's an infrastructure piece that you know, the airports are putting a lot of effort into you know, and investment and to get themselves Vivi ready and I think the truck manufacturers have started recognize, hey, there's there's a lot of gap there. And so we have us getting our new Evie product or new Evie trucks and, and our working environment that will give us not only a new product segment, but also some good data on on on on our new, you know, make our products more reliable and better for the for the long term.

Joe Griffith: 1:06:19

It's really a it's a it's a perfect use case for battery electric in the airport environment. Because the speeds are low, the drive distances are very short relative to what you would have and like a delivery application. Yeah. So when they when we bring them in, and we show them kind of what what we're doing and the data sets that that we have from the telemetry of current use. It perfectly fits with where their current product offering is an electric. And it just becomes a matter of a partnership with the engineering between the two between us as the end user us as the upfitter and them as the manufacturer of trying to integrate the two the two technologies and it really comes down to spacing and packaging. But But working with, you know a major OEM and having the level of engineering buy in we've gotten from them is because we've brought them in with our partners, we've shown them the use case. And as John said, it's a really a great opportunity for them to get their product out in mass and an app in an environment that actually really really suits where the technology sits currently. And as battery technology and motor technology evolves, the onroad applications will become easier and easier but as it sits today, it really really fits very well with the airport environment.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:07:45

I'm excited to see Volvo in the airport environment

Joe Griffith: 1:07:48

Yeah, so I mean that's a good partnership Volvo Volvo is a great partner for us we have that out in Europe we're currently you know we have that truck and service in Europe and we're building several more this year and then and then launch in the North American version.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:08:03

And it'll still be Volvo here in the US no okay no wait we're P and

John Cameron: 1:08:07

verge SC European and back to its back to you know we've we've built fantastic relationships over the 12 years or so we've been in North America we work with Ford we worked with Freightliner we worked with the International and Isuzu and a couple others. I suppose what we've done is gone around and talk to all of them and looked at where they are on their own Evie journey. And, you know, now we still we still want the truck to look American and smell America feel American and probably more importantly be supportive, you know that that's critical, you know, so the dealer network support that you would get from one of those US base would far exceed anything that we could ever do by bringing over a Euro chain bias trucks Yeah, we've had to wait till the right partner has has been on that point in their journey. But as Joe points out that when we actually introduced them to the airport environment you know, you could see the light bulb moment. dryers This is perfect for we can do this. We can do this. Yeah, yep, we can do this part. We're not trying to drive down a highway for 10 hours a day at 80 kilometers or you know, satellite miles an hour. So he

Matthew Weitzel: 1:09:22

slowed is he talking about he slips

John Cameron: 1:09:25

70 miles an hour so that part that part of it is that part of it really I think is where we've had the real buy in from from the US base their truck OEMs and now we I think we really have something coming to market that will really really get our rebar effectively that title of product because I suspect and in the years to come as as, as infrastructure and I suppose Net Zero targets become more and more prevalent for for customers that This pivot towards even on the commercial truck side will become much more

Joe Griffith: 1:10:05

infrastructure availability and product maturity, and, you know, mandates from government entities to electrify as much as as much of the airport environment as possible. And it's really, it's, as John said, it's kind of the next evolution of of what the Malin high lift truck will look like.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:10:23

We're excited to see it and hopefully we'll see it very soon. Yeah, that's the plan. So alright, so speaking of Vegas, what's your favorite food spot to go to in Vegas? And Joe, I'll start with you. Is there anything you'd like look forward to every year when you go to Vegas for the expo?

Joe Griffith: 1:10:40

The Golden steer?

Matthew Weitzel: 1:10:42

The Golden steer? Yep, Steakhouse.

Joe Griffith: 1:10:44

Fantastic.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:10:45

I've never heard of the Golden steer. This is the reason I asked this question. So like,

John Cameron: 1:10:49

I'm not I'm not gonna I'm not gonna upset anybody by picking a particular restaurant but the thing that always amazes me in Vegas is if I go for a breakfast I can probably consume about 5000 calories right? I get I get a breakfast that delivers me three waffles for breast chicken

Joe Griffith: 1:11:09

but but that's an a Bloody Mary

Matthew Weitzel: 1:11:10

and the exact sitting on top of the Bloody Mary with like a thing through Yeah, and

Unknown: 1:11:14

I get that I get that blood sugar rush that lasts for about another another 12 hours so yeah, what I would say in Vegas it's not so much a particular I mean the quantity the quality well it's just has a fantastic range of eateries I mean the restaurants there bar Na Na are and so accessible around in some of the hotels and their restaurants are fantastic. But no one always you know as as, even as a regular visitor to the shores that the scale of food offering at some of these has some of these restaurants would feel it would fit a smile family of four back in Europe for a couple of days. Nevermind for breakfast.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:11:56

Exactly. Well, yeah, we're looking forward to the show. I think it's gonna you know, I mean, it's, it's this show is gonna be, I think probably one of the best ones we've had just because you know, everybody's ready to get out there. We obviously had in 2021. But there was still like people wearing masks. Yeah, hand sanitizers all deal. I think this one's gonna be, I think people are raring to go you.

Joe Griffith: 1:12:16

Awesome. You asked earlier. So it's booth 11420. Okay. 1142.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:12:22

So make sure you stop by 1142 and 617, which will be indoors. So when they can come out and see your product, right and get all hot and sweaty. And then when they're ready to come and relaxing come to our booth. Exactly. That sound.

John Cameron: 1:12:34

So when when mod I think so that's

Joe Griffith: 1:12:36

partnership,

Matthew Weitzel: 1:12:37

that it's a true partnership right there. So Well, that's all I had guys. Do you all, just last call, want to make sure that there's nothing else that we didn't cover?

John Cameron: 1:12:48

No, I think you've you've you've, you've managed us? Well, I often think sometimes you know, we have maybe sometimes a reputation that we enjoy the finer things in life also. So you've kept us on a nice, neat path here today. Try to you've done very well. I do want to say not only thank you for giving us this opportunity to sit and talk to you today. A special thank you for exceed on the support they've given us for the golf tournament we talked about earlier in Norway. We talked about a little bit of business we're doing together and we very much appreciate that. But on a on a human level. I think the support you're giving us around this. This golf tournament is very, still very raw to some people Joe touched on there. You know, Shane's father still very much involved in Marlins operations. So I think it was we brought him out here for the inaugural tournament last year. And for anybody that attended it was it was a very emotional moment. For me got ready to go. And so it's anybody that's connected to it, anybody supporting us anyway, that's coming to play in the tournament, can we just say thank you for your support? That's It's hugely appreciated. We believe we're doing it for for a great cause. It's a terrible, it's a terrible issue for particularly for young people, but you know, I can I can speak even on a personal level, it's a terrible thing for families that have to face and consider and I think it's, it's, it's a chance to, to highlight that great cause and where we got great support from you guys. It's police take it from us. We're wholly appreciative of it.

Unknown: 1:14:27

No, I would I would echo the same thing, you know, and, you know, the, the health crisis that affects affects today's youth and, you know, the mental burden that is placed on them. And you know, Mallaghan is a very young company. I don't think we touched on it earlier. But, you know, we have we have, you know, over 70 people here in the facility in Atlanta with an average age of 26/27 years old, so, you know, the, it's often joked or overlooked. You never know what someone's going through. And so to drive that awareness for suicide awareness and prevention and the support we've gotten from from from the likes of Xcēd and the other presenting sponsors and delta and a versed in waters is, is is humbling, and would welcome anyone in the industry and anyone that hears this come out and support and be a part of it.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:15:25

So there's still spots left any sponsorship opportunities left Yep,

Joe Griffith: 1:15:29

yet we have some sponsorship opportunities left. So how would they get in

Matthew Weitzel: 1:15:33

touch with you if they if somebody wanted to sponsor or get involved in the tournament?

Unknown: 1:15:37

Yeah, so if they they can reach out to shamrock classic at Mallaghangroup.com. That's our that's our charity, email address. Or, or reach out to me or John. And we will we'll pass along the the information in the details. We have a website that they can go on to, you know, either donate or or sponsor, a team or a hole and really come out and be a part of it. So, you know, we would we would welcome anyone, regardless of who they are competitor or not come out and be a part of it.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:16:14

Well, that's awesome. Yeah. Well, I think we, we sponsored the first year as well. So yes, our second year, so we gotta keep it going. We can't We can't let it lapse. We're on a roll every year. Right. So Well, thank you all so much for for taking the opportunity to talk to me and talk about your products. And I really appreciate it and having me and hosting me give your facility and show me around. I really appreciate it. Thank

John Cameron: 1:16:36

you, man. Thanks, man. I really enjoyed it. Thanks

Joe Griffith: 1:16:38

for the partnership,

Matthew Weitzel: 1:16:39

if not a problem. Well, this is this is Matt and this will do it for the GSE podcast. Thanks a lot, guys. All right. That's a wrap of this episode of The GSE Podcast. A heartfelt thank you to Mallaghan for sharing their valuable insights with us today. If you're as passionate about the ground sports equipment industry as we are, please hit that subscribe button and share this episode with fellow GSE enthusiast. Your support means the world to us and helps us bring more of these enlightening discussions to you. Now, for those attending the GSE Expo from September 26 to the 28th. Here's an opportunity you won't want to miss. Visit Xcēd at booth 617 and take the mic. That's right, you can record an intro or an outro for the GSE podcast. Who knows? You might just hear your own voice in our upcoming episodes. Thanks for tuning in.