16.02.2011

Wilcox adds to fleet

The UK's leading unwanted clothing recycler Wilcox Textile Reclaimers has added another specialist truck and loader crane to its fleet.

The 18 tonne Iveco chassis is fitted with a radio remote-controlled 10 tonne/metre HMF crane and high-sided alloy tipping body by Leeward Truck Bodies based in Darlaston, West Midlands.
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Wilcox Textile Reclaimers has added another specialist truck to its fleet.

The cranes are used to lift and empty bottom-opening textile containers which can weigh as much as 800kg. The latest truck is Wilcox’s second from HMF’s new model range - the 1075-K2 - fitted with a bottle bank-type attachment for lifting textile containers.

Every week family-owned Wilcox Textile Reclaimers collects 750,000kg of clothing from 2,500 collection points nationwide, the majority of them charity shops and textile banks.

Loads are then returned to the company’s state-of-the-art production facility in Bilston, West Midlands, where items are reclaimed and processed, with some 30,000 tonnes being exported each year to Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Wilcox - which has depots in Durham, Llantrissant in South Wales and Newton Abbott, Devon - works closely with charities, local authorities, major supermarkets and waste companies. It operates a fleet of 55 commercial vehicles, ranging in size from 44 tonne tractor units to light vans used to make urgent collections. The line-up includes 15 Iveco-based crane trucks.

“HMF was very helpful and worked closely with Iveco and Leeward on the original design six years ago,” says managing director Martin Wilcox. “It was all very reassuring and every crane we’ve bought since has been pretty well perfect for the job.

“Despite the fact that our cranes make up to 50 pick-ups a day, we’ve incurred very little in the way of defects or damage arising from operator error. The build quality is quite something – even with cranes that are five years old we’ve not suffered anything beyond routine wear and tear, while HMF provides an excellent, quarterly maintenance service.”

The Wilcox family has been recycling textiles since 1895 and the current owners are the fourth generation to run the business. Its computer-controlled, 50,000sq ft production facility in Bilston is apparently the most modern and productive of its kind in the UK.