Equipment report

Rockster Recycler expands to North America

Austria-based manufacturer of track-mounted crushers and screens Kormann Rockster Recycler GmbH has announced an agreement with two recycling equipment veterans to form Rockster Recycler North America and bring its line of products to North America. These include Rockster Recycler’s interchangeable jaw/impactor Duplex System and its electric hybrid crushing and screening plant. Partners Stu Gamble and Brian Barlow and a sales team are in the process of selling direct as they develop and support a recycling-, demolition- and aggregate-focused independent dealer network throughout the United States and Canada. A new North American website, www.rockster.us.com, is now available.

Gamble has developed and managed North American sales for several years with various market-related mobile and track-mounted equipment manufacturers, and Barlow and his company Barlow Strategic Sales & Marketing have provided sales development and marketing services to several recycling and aggregate equipment manufacturers since 1991. The new headquarters is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a parts and service center located in Webster, Massachusetts. Kormann Rockster Recycler GmbH also has contracted with Barlow Strategic Sales & Marketing for sales and dealer development and marketing support to assist the new company.

Rockster Recycler was established in 2004 and manufactures global track-mounted crushing and screening solutions. The manufacturer specializes in the design and production of track-mounted crushing and screening systems for processing asphalt, concrete, demolition debris and natural stone. More than 400 Rockster Recycler machines are working in a wide range of applications throughout the world.

“We are looking forward to expanding the reach of our Rockster Recycler line in North America, and are confident that the industry experience Stu Gamble and Brian Barlow bring to this relationship will help us achieve our goals for the North American market,” says Wolfgang Kormann, CEO of Kormann Rockster Recycler GmbH.

“Rockster Recycler has a strong brand recognition and reputation throughout Europe, as well as two very unique crushers in the patented, interchangeable jaw/impactor Duplex System and the hybrid electric and diesel crushing and screening plant,” says Gamble, vice president of sales. “We’re looking forward to growing the North American market and working one-on-one with dealers and contractors as we target the recycle, rental, construction and demolition market segments, as well as the aggregate market, with highly portable and adaptable mid-range track-mounted crushers and screens.”

Rockster Recycler’s crusher line includes track-mounted impact crushers, available in R700S, R900 and R1100 models, and track-mounted jaw crushers available in R800 and R1200 models.

Bandit Industries to go private

The private equity firm Huron Capital Partners, headquartered in Detroit, and the equipment company Bandit Industries, Remus, Michigan, have entered into a letter of intent to recapitalize Bandit as a private company and provide resources and capital to reinforce the equipment company’s growth while accelerating its global growth strategy.

Bandit Industries designs, manufactures, distributes and services hand-fed and whole tree wood chippers, stump grinders, forestry mowers, the company’s Beast recycling machines and other specialty wood and recycling processing equipment. The company supplies equipment to the recycling, renewable energy, logging, forestry, tree care and land-clearing industries through a network of more than 160 locations.

Under the new structure, Jerry Morey will continue to run Bandit as president and CEO.

Following the closing of the deal to take Bandit private, the company says a CEO succession plan will be initiated to recruit and train a replacement CEO for the next phase of the company’s growth.

Mike Morey Sr. and Dianne Morey also will remain with the company in consulting roles. Bandit will be co-owned by Jerry Morey, Mike Morey, Dianne Morey and Huron Capital. The investment is expected to close in fall 2014.

“When we announced last year that we were looking at companies for a potential sale or merger of Bandit, we were adamant that it had to be the right fit for our company, our community, our dealer network, and most importantly, our employees,” says Jerry Morey. “We were only interested in partnering with an organization that would respect and be committed to our company culture, from our employees in Michigan to our dealers operating all around the world.

Morey continues, “Huron Capital has a long history of growing companies while maintaining their independent operations and unique company culture, and that was a significant factor in our decision to partner with the firm. It also feels good to be working with another Michigan-based company that understands our challenges and shares our hometown pride.”

The company will remain at its current 280,000-square-foot world headquarters.

Avis Industrial acquires IPS Balers

Upland, Indiana-based Avis Industrial Corp., a privately held company with 10 subsidiaries throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, has acquired IPS Balers Inc., Baxley, Georgia, from the CP Group, San Diego.

IPS Balers is a manufacturer of ferrous, nonferrous, plastics and mixed fiber balers that has been serving the recycling industry for nearly two decades. Since 2008, IPS was a part of the CP Group of Cos., an international manufacturer of material recovery facilities (MRFs) and equipment, including disc screens, trommels, optical sorters and other material separation and recovery equipment.

With this acquisition, IPS becomes the third baler company owned by Avis Industrial, joining American Baler Co. and Harris Waste Management Group Inc. These Avis companies manufacture and sell shears, shredders and compactors among other products for the recycling industry.

“We are pleased to add IPS to our baler manufacturing companies,” says Leland Boren, chairman and CEO of Avis Industrial. “The features that are exclusive to IPS machines, including the precompression lids, hinge sides and bale-tie two rams, are innovative and allow us to meet the requirements of even more customers in the recycling industry.”

In conjunction with this sale, Avis Industrial has named CP Group as a strategic international distributor, authorizing CP to sell all of the Avis baler lines.

CP President Terry Schneider says, “Six years ago, CP acquired IPS to offer customers a complete package to our sort systems. Now, as a distributor for Avis, we will be able to offer our customers even more baler solutions. CP looks forward to a long and mutually beneficial business relationship with Avis.”

Avis says that in return it will have access to CP sorting systems, including disc screens and optical sorters, among other MRF equipment components.

KPI-JCI/AMS names new president of its Oregon facility

KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens (KPI-JCI/AMS) has named Jeff Schwarz president of the company’s Johnson Crushers International (JCI) manufacturing facility in Eugene, Oregon.

Schwarz will report directly to Jeff Elliott, who assumed the role of group vice president for Astec Industries July 1. In his new leadership position, Schwarz “will be responsible for setting and achieving the goals and objectives for the manufacturing facility,” KPI-JCI/AMS says.

KPI-JCI/AMS bills itself as a premier worldwide manufacturer for the aggregate, recycling and construction industries.

“JCI is an amazing company and I am quite proud to be chosen as the person that will guide the business into the future,” says Schwarz. “The culture here is solidly grounded with Astec Industries’ five core values. These core values have pointed all of our associates in the right direction in the past, and they will continue to do so well into the future. My vision is one that holds strong to our beliefs and values that have gotten us this far. This is a company that embraces innovation and is constantly challenging itself to do better.”

Schwarz says the Oregon manufacturing facility is at a unique point in time where it is starting to feel the “growing pains” of an increasing demand for its products.

“Anyone who has visited the facility in the last year or so has probably recognized the need for more space,” he comments. “The management group has started planning for what our facility will look like in the future, and I am looking forward to structuring an organization that has the tools and resources necessary to ensure the growth of the company.”

Elliott says Schwarz was the ideal candidate for moving the company’s Oregon location forward. “Jeff Schwarz brings a unique set of skills with him from his experiences of being a user of crushing and screening equipment, as well as distributors of crushing and screening equipment,” Elliott says. “We look forward to his contributions in guiding JCI to meet its goals.”