Company profile: Sheppee International
At home with hot ware handling The UK’s Sheppee International is extending its testing facility to allow it to simulate exactly what happens in a glass plant. On the twoyear anniversary of its acquisition by Groupe Rondot, Greg Morris spoke to Managing Director Mark Johnston.
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isit any container glass plant in any continent and there is a strong chance that Sheppee International has installed the hot ware equipment. The Yorkshire, UK based company estimates about 75% of the world’s container glass plants have installed its machinery. No other supplier has as many transfers and stackers installed in glass plants worldwide. Its market reach extends to South America, Asia and Europe. By its own admission, its equipment has become the ‘Hoover’ of the industry. Hot ware equipment has often been referred to as ‘a Sheppee’, regardless if it is from someone else. The company has come a long way since its formation in 1907 by Colonel Frank Sheppee. Back then it was initially involved in the manufacture of steam-driven traction engines, cycles and motorbikes but, thanks to a flourishing local glass industry in the 1920s, it turned its attention to the
Stacker and Independent Transfer Drive (ITD) production in the workshop.
container sector. Its focus today is entirely on hot glass container ware handling.
Strength Sheppee’s Managing Director, Mark Johnston, said: “Our strength is that we manufacture ware handling equipment, we are not a manufacturer where ware handling is a bolt on. “We live or die by ware handling. Other people may manufacture lehrs or cullet scraping machines and they just happen to make ware handlig equipment because they’ve seen an opportunity. “It’s not their core business though so they don’t push it or do too much with it. But for us, it’s our core business, it’s everything we do.” It is estimated that there are 2200 lines in glass plants around the world and Sheppee has its equipment in 1500 of them. Such is its quality Continued>>
56 Glass International July/August 2016
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