The Sennebogen 825 material handler changes the game for one North Carolina company.
To Kim Markham’s way of thinking, the Sennebogen 825 material handler he owns has been a dynamic addition to his company.
Markham’s firm, Asheboro Recycling Center (ARC), located on Southmont Drive on the south side of Asheboro, N.C., is a one-stop shop for the buying, processing and selling of recyclables.
The company handles recyclable materials from the city of Asheboro and Randolph County, as well as most of the businesses and manufacturers in the area.
As a result, ARC does about $11 million in sales each year.
But despite that success, Markham was initially very reluctant to invest in the new Sennebogen rubber-tired handler in late 2011 when the need came up for his company to purchase a new machine.
“I was scared to death, to be honest with you, on purchasing this material handler,” said Markham. “I really couldn’t afford to buy it, but once I learned the value it could give us, I decided to do it.”
The initial value came when Markham researched several material handlers made by different companies, including the German-based Sennebogen.
After seeing a Sennebogen 825 operate at another business and talking to its operator, Markham was impressed with the feedback he was getting on the machine. In addition, he liked the fact that the company had its North American headquarters and a 100,000 sq. ft. (9,290 sq m) parts warehouse in Charlotte, only about an hour away.
“That was huge for us,” he said. “With my business located in central North Carolina and Sennebogen located in the Charlotte area, we felt that it was too good to pass up.”
In addition, Markham appreciated the hand-in-glove relationship that Sennebogen has with ASC Construction Equipment USA Inc., the Charlotte-based dealership from which he purchased the 825 material handler. ASC is the Sennebogen dealership for North and South Carolina and carries a full line of Sennebogen products.
“But what really amazed me,” said Markham, “was that, before we got the Sennebogen, we were loading all of our shred metal with track hoes. It would take us, truck scale to truck scale, 45 minutes to load. With the Sennebogen, I have seen us do it in as little as 15 minutes.
“Todd Gilmore [the firm’s ferrous (magnetic) and non-ferrous manager] loads shred material once in a blue moon and he has done it in 23 minutes. We have since been able to load 16 trailers in one day. That efficiency is remarkable.”
Gilmore said that the Sennebogen has the advantage of offering its operator a raised cab, which allows him to more ably pick and place his load.
“I had always loaded containers out with an excavator, so the ability to be in a raised cab to better see what you are doing makes it so easy,” he said.
Versatile Sennebogen
in Constant Use
A visit to ARC will see a bevy of equipment moving around the facility, including skid steers, forklifts, track hoes and wheel loaders, made by a variety of manufacturers such as John Deere, Bobcat, Komatsu and Case — but only one Sennebogen.
“We use it every day,” Markham said. “Dump trucks come in to ARC with materials for the Sennebogen to unload. Once we hook up a magnet to it we can then load fill to go to the mill.”
As an example of its versatility, Gilmore added that he can attach and use a 36-inch magnet to the 825 — a magnet not even made by Sennebogen — in as little as 12 minutes.
With the 36-inch magnet, Gilmore said that the machine can pick up around 1,800 to 2,000 lbs. (816.5 to 907.2 kg) of metal.
“The Sennebogen is perfect for handling this type of material,” said Gilmore. “Being as young as I am, I always like to have the biggest and best, and this 825 is perfect for how we use it.”
Markham said that his firm’s target is to place about 40,000 pounds per load into its trailers. With the company’s single Sennebogen, they are now getting very close to achieving that goal.
After 12 years in the recycling business, Markham said that he has learned that it is an industry that is very unforgiving, if not brutal, on its equipment. He added that from everything he has seen, the Sennebogen has proven its mettle against the worst that ARC can throw at it.
A Complete Recycling Company
Situated on about 20 acres of land with a railroad spur on the property, ARC has been owned by Markham since 2002. With 28 current full-time employees and a number of seasonal workers, the company processes around 30,000 tons (27,215 t) of material each year, according to Markham.
“We are very unique in that we are a complete recycler,” he said, “and when I say that, I mean that our facility receives co-mingled curbside material from the city of Asheboro and Randolph County; we have tractors and trailers running to local industrial plants picking up cardboard, metal and plastic, and we also have the daily peddlers delivering those materials to us.”
Markham is proud of the fact that ARC has become quite skilled at finding outlets for items that are normally difficult to recycle effectively, such as old rubber scrap and dust.
In another example, he pointed to the fact that he is working with another company to recycle waste glue generated by manufacturing facilities.
“We have brought some of our corporate accounts to the point where we can recycle everything, whereas others are down to about 2 percent left for the landfill,” he said. “To go zero landfill is very costly for some plants, because then you start to talk about waste to energy. You also are getting into incineration, which is costly, and paying for the movement of that material to the incinerator. But, we have the experience to do all of that.”
ARC Renowned for Its Integrity
A former assistant plant manager of Energizer Battery, Markham said that he is proud that ARC is known for the honesty and integrity behind its service.
“And by owning this Sennebogen, I feel that we are able to continue offering that excellent service to our daily retail customers and corporate accounts,” said Markham.
For more information on the Sennebogen equipment line call 704/839-9553.
Eric Olson
A writer and contributing editor for CEG since 2008, Eric Olson has worked in the business for more than 40 years.
Olson grew up in the small town of Lenoir, NC in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he began covering sports for the local newspaper at age 18. He continued to do that for several other dailies in the area while in college at Appalachian State University. Following his graduation, he moved on to gain experience at two other publications before becoming a real estate and special features writer and editor at the Winston-Salem Journal for 10 years. Since 1999 he has worked as a corporate media liaison and freelance writer, in addition to his time at CEG.
He and his wife, Tara, have been married for 33 years and are the parents of two grown and successful daughters. His hobbies include collecting history books, watching his beloved Green Bay Packers and caring for his three dogs and one cat.
Read more from Eric Olson here.
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