Part two and the final chapter of our feature on what happened to the iconic Highland Bear and Highlander brands
On 9 May 1990, James Jones & Sons sold off its engineering division to concentrate on the sawmilling side of the business. The management team of Wilson Paton, Charles Johnston and Tom Rae bought the engineering side with a little help from a friendly bank manager; they renamed it
Outreach Ltd, and continued trading at the Foundry Loan, Larbert.
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The WeighPro Wireless Weighing Link represents a precise and dependable weighing system designed specifically for round timber, eliminating the need for re-calibration. This system offers operators minimal maintenance requirements, boasting an impressive battery life of up to two years between recharges.
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That’s a remarkable amount of work hours for a single machine, the Norcar 600 owned by Erkki Rinne is taken well care of, it even has the original Diesel engine.
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It is not possible to eliminate chain shot, but there are simple steps that can be taken to reduce the risk.
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Arwel takes great pride in the fact that the mill has no waste whatsoever, “the peelings are used for children’s playgrounds, gardens and for farm animals in barns in the winter and the sawdust has multiple uses in gardens and farms as well.
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Timber hauliers need to encourage young blood in, and also look after the hauliers we have, we need make the sector a safe and positive place to work.
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Forestry was reasonably buoyant in the early 1990s, with almost 4 million cubic metres harvested annually; this accounted for around 11% of Britain’s timber needs and was worth more than £77 million.
At this point, Outreach still held good franchises for forestry and other related equipment, including well-known brands such as Unimog, Igland winches, Alucar, Farmi, Steyr Puch, Jonsered/Loglift, etc.
This is an interesting piece of forestry history: the very last County to roll off the production line (now owned by the Benton Group, who were also destined for bankruptcy) in mid 1995 was a 1164-40, sent to Outreach at Larbert for a forestry conversion. It was commissioned at the request of the British Overseas Territory Island of St Helena for its Environment and Natural Resources Directorate (ENRD), which needed the tractor for forestry use. The 1164-60 was to replace a 754 Highland Bear County and a smaller 4600-four County.
The County conversion included Igland remote-controlled, double-drum, PTO-driven winches, rear-mounted hydraulic stabilising jacks, a Farmi Forester telescopic crane, and a logging blade with a forestry cab and guarding. This County was based on a New Holland 8340S skid unit, which was produced for export. It had a turbocharged 6-cylinder 7.5-litre 125 hp PowerStar engine with a Ford derived 8F/2Rcpnstant mesh gearbox
Read the Full Feature on the Last Forestry Highlander County here
After its completion, it was sent to St Helena, where it remained for 23 years. Unfortunately, it fell into disuse until a Welsh farmer and county enthusiast, Brychan Anwyl, stumbled upon it. He arranged for it to be shipped back to the UK, where it has since been beautifully restored to its original splendour.
Read about our Finnish friends from SKAL Metsa Ry and their visit to Wales, which included visiting this iconic County
However, the forestry side was in decline for Outreach, with a lot of new boys on the block trying to muscle their way into the market for supplying forestry equipment. The management team decided it needed to find new and different markets to secure Outreach’s long-term future.
Over the coming years, they sold off some franchises to other forestry dealers, but they continued to supply Alucar and Jonsered/Loglift equipment to the timber haulage industry.
As they built a strong reputation and loyal customer base, Outreach made inroads into the materials handling market, which proved valuable outside forestry. Outreach developed a grab for the oil and gas industry to handle pipes, and the same design is still in use today.
In 1998, when the old BT Transport premises came up for sale in Falkirk, Outreach purchased them; they spent over a year building workshops and refurbishing the existing offices before relocating in 2000.
Outreach relinquished the Jonsered/Loglift timber loaders in 2004, when they took on the franchise for the Austrian-based Palfinger Epsilon range of products. As the existing Palfinger importer for lorry-mounted cranes for many years, this partnership opened many new markets for Outreach, as Palfinger was well established not just in forestry equipment, but also in lorry cranes, access platforms, hook and skiploaders, tail lifts, and Palfinger Marine products.
The only minor hiccup occurred when Outreach had to convert many of its existing timber haulage customers to the new Palfinger Epsilon loaders it was now supplying and fitting.
Within a short period, this was extremely successful.
2007 saw another major milestone in Outreach’s development. The two remaining directors and principal shareholders, Wilson Paton and Charles Johnston, announced the sale of the company and its entire shareholdings to two younger directors. Gary Potts became Managing Director of Sales and Marketing. Gary had 19 years’ experience in the field and joined Outreach in 1997 as a sales engineer, working his way up to Sales and Marketing Director in 2002.
His business partner/co-owner, Derek Payne, became Managing Director for Operations. Derek joined Outreach in 1995 and was responsible for controlling and developing products for the oil and gas Industry; he then progressed to Production Manager and became Operations Director in 2001.
Wilson and Charles, the outgoing directors, were pleased that the business would have a bright, secure future under the leadership of the young, capable and highly motivated management team of Gary and Derek.
At the time of the buyout, Outreach announced record order income of over £11 million for the previous 12 months, driven by offshore pipe handling, elevating access platforms and marine cranes, as well as increased sales of Palfinger & Epsilon cranes and Denver access platform products.
They then employed 51 staff at their Falkirk premises.
Outreach continued to make great progress under the new management, which increased both their products and workforce: they had their own training division that offers CPC Operator Training, ALLMI Lorry Loader training & other related specialist training and have also created Outreach Access, which is a mobile fleet of truck, van and specialist access platforms.
One of Outreach’s main focuses was building strong working relationships with staff, customers, and suppliers; for instance, they have successfully supplied and fitted the Scandinavian-made Alucar range of timber bodies for 32 years.
Forestry accounts for about 25% of new sales.
Also, they had another depot in Longtown, which is operated by Alan Hodgson, Service Engineer. Alan has been with Outreach for ten years, and is responsible for the service & fitting of the Palfinger Epsilon timber loaders in northern England and Scotland.
Covering Wales, the Midlands, and southern England is sub-dealer Forestry Transport Maintenance, which installs and services Palfinger Epsilon loaders; the company is owned and managed by engineer Peter Williams, who employs his daughter Amanda and a skilled workforce.
Wales is a big market for Outreach, with one haulier alone, Kieron M Owen from Caersws, using 28 Palfinger timber loaders. ,
James Munro Engineering operates at Rafford as a sub-dealer for servicing and repairs in the North of Scotland.
Palfinger Epsilon timber loaders have been a success story for Outreach.
For instance, John Scott of JST Services, Ayr, was both the first and hundredth customer to purchase an Epsilon loader from Outreach. He visited the factory in Salzburg, Austria, for a presentation and to see his loader in production.
Ferguson Transport of Spean Bridge had six boats fitted with Palfinger Epsilon loaders: these are used to transport timber from the Scottish Islands to the mainland, or in some cases to move the timber from north to south, in order to reduce the number of timber trucks travelling on the roads, in addition to fish farm feed and many other products.
In 2018, the TH White Group acquired Outreach and integrated it into its existing lorry crane division. It has since become known as Palfinger UK.
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