At a time of global economic uncertainty, Netherlands-based Dunlop Conveyor Belting is bucking the trend by making the biggest single investment in its history. The new investments, totaling some €6.4 million, are designed to increase current capacity as well as adding a brand new product to its already comprehensive range of rubber multi-ply belting.
The first phase, costing some €2.5 million, is the addition of a new, 12-metre-long ‘double-daylight’ press, which will produce rolls of up to four metres in diameter (20 tonnes) at a width of up to 1,400mm. Director of production, Michiel Eijpe, says that the press will be at least twice as efficient as current presses. “We urgently need to improve our capacity to keep up with customer demand, particularly our ability to make more 800 to 1,400mm-wide belts,” explains Eijpe. “Increasing capacity also means that we can further reduce lead times for our customers, which will give us yet another edge over our competitors”.
The second part of the programme is an investment of €3.9 million to build a new, 100-metre-long production hall on the existing site. Here Dunlop plans to install a steelcord production line that will be linked to its newest press, which itself was only installed as recently as 2009. The new production line will be used to produce steelcord belting for the first time ever in Holland. Although actual production is not expected to begin before September next year, sales and marketing director Andries Smilda already has eyes on winning new market share. “This will create a whole new dimension to our sales efforts. A great many of our
customers use steelcord as well as rubber multi-ply belting so we have a ready-made target market to attack”.
Up until now, supplies of steelcord belting for Dunlop’s existing customers have largely been produced by Fenner USA. “Although the quality is excellent ” explains Smilda, “The limitation on sales is mostly due to the shipping costs from North America, which puts us at an immediate price disadvantage. With our own steelcord production located in Europe we will be able to be much more aggressive and responsive”.
 
NETWORK EXPANSION
At the same time, Dunlop continues to expand its network of Dunlop Service centres, which provide a 24/7/365 belt fitting service. Having already successfully established centres in Holland, Spain, Poland, Morocco and two (Bergamo and Sicily) in Italy, Dunlop has recently opened another service centre in Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
Although Tenerife may at first sound like an unusual location for a conveyor belt business, the local market is surprisingly big. Dunlop Service Canary (through its acquisition of a long-standing vulcanizing company) has instantly established itself as the major player throughout Tenerife itself, Lanzarote, La Gomera and Fuerteventura. There is also a strong connection between the islands and countries on the west coast of Africa.
With such ambitious plans, the future continues to look very positive for Dunlop Conveyor Belting.