Adapt GSE was on stand B60 at the GSE Expo Europe. Airside International’s publisher, Parveen Raja, met there with Eamonn Maguire and David Russell, respectively commercial director and business development director of Adapt GSE, to discuss their backgrounds and to think about the future
Raja: Tell us about yourselves?
Maguire: I have ten years’ experience in the GSE industry. I previously worked for a GSE OEM [original equipment manufacturer] group based in Northern Ireland, where my role was Middle East regional sales manager. I spent five of the eight years based in Dubai servicing the North African, Middle East and Indian markets, and then I moved back from Dubai and left the company in July 2020.
Russell: I also worked previously for this same OEM group and I was there for almost 13 years, for eight of which I was the regional sales manager for the Asia-Pacific region based in Singapore. I then relocated back, and was looking after Western Europe and China. I also left this same company in September 2020 and later on Eamonn and I got together and sat down and decided to develop two businesses that we called Adapt GSE and Adapt Global Solutions. So we have two arms to the business. Adapt Global Solutions is where we represent some of the GSE OEMs, like Kalmar Motors (of Sweden), Dynell (of Austria), Doll (of Germany), and dBD Communications (of the UK).
Maguire: We are the UK and Ireland agents for the four brands mentioned by David and we also do some additional consultancy work for Doll in selected Middle East and Far East markets. In terms of Adapt GSE, this company is focused entirely on the remarketing and resale of GSE assets. We have recently partnered with HiSERV, the German rental and leasing company, and we are very busy selling their younger life GSE assets to rest-of-the-world markets as they come off the rental business.
Raja: How successful has it been? You have been going now since 2020?
Maguire: Yes, we set up Adapt Global Solutions in November 2020, and then registered Adapt GSE in December 2020. Obviously it goes without saying, the era of Covid-19 was challenging for us during our first year of business. However, now we are into our second year of trading, and the traction has been very good this year. We have made multiple sales and deals in rest-of-the-world markets and second-hand sales.
Raja: Are you looking to expand? Or is it just very much Europe-based for now?
Russell: No, our sales cover Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, the African continent and over into the Americas markets too.
Maguire: We are located in Northern Ireland, and we have a small but very dedicated team of GSE engineers with proven experience and ability. We have recently built a new workshop and we have been doing a number of overhauls on machines – including full sand blasting, priming and painting as well as hydraulic piping and electric refurbishments and general retrofit work.
Raja: Are you two the sole shareholders in the business or do you have an investor?
Russell: No, we are the sole owners in the company. We invested our own money to develop the company back in 2020 and I suppose we were lucky in a way with the pandemic because we were able to get access to equipment at quite reasonable prices. Although, as Eamonn has said, it was a difficult time, and any start-up is always challenging, so we had to sit on a lot of that for a while. We invested in building our new workshop facility.
Maguire: Considering our Adapt logo, we have the Globe representing the world GSE trading network and then we have the Dragonfly, which symbolises change. Literally, adapt means change, so we thought the Adapt name was poignant and suitable. It was one word and it’s quite catchy. We had to adapt to change and the dragonfly [represents] our resilience to do what we did and when we did it – to make a change in ourselves and what we are doing, to transition from selling brand-new OEM-manufactured equipment into the second-hand GSE market, and of course remarketing and selling GSE products that we have never looked at before, as well as dealing with the various manufacturers on that side of it as well.
Russell: It’s been great working with the wider community in the GSE industry and we have reconnected with many longstanding friends at the GSE Expo. The show has been great this week. Moreover, we have also met a lot of new people. Previously, it’s been fantastic to visit many OEMs’ manufacturing facilities within the GSE industry this past 12 months or so.
Maguire: We have met of course a lot of previous faces [at the show] and we both say that this GSE industry is a very close-knit community with a global reach. More often than not, people tend to stay within this sector, albeit maybe with career and company changes. Whilst we were always based in the new equipment side of things, you meet established people but now also that we are looking at the premium used GSE market, we are meeting a lot of new customers from the African continent, the Middle East and from the Asia-Pacific region.
Raja: There are a few companies out there, as you know, doing what you guys are doing, so what is your USP compared to your competitors?
Russell: It goes without saying that, as in any sector, competition is always very healthy. We want to concentrate first on giving a very good service to new and existing customers. I would say the unique selling point of Adapt GSE is in our collaboration with HiSERV GmbH. HiSERV is also quite a young company, and part of the wider WISAG group. They have very high expertise in maintenance and the GSE assets coming off the rental cycle are generally younger life assets, reduced hours and fairly priced, and so we want to position ourselves in the market and provide good products and services with very good manuals and very good maintenance records, all at a fair price to the customer.
Maguire: David and I have had a very enjoyable GSE Expo and there has been a great atmosphere throughout the show all week. We wish all participants the very best and great success for the remainder of 2022 and into 2023, and we look forward to meeting the GSE community and its customer base again at the various shows and events in the future.
