Brandon White, internal sales manager at Kirkcaldy-based Astrak, tells Project Plant about the impact of adding buckets to the firm’s portfolio, and plans to become the ‘go-to’ supplier in the UK market
Q) What are the latest innovations in the Astrak bucket range?
A) Our GeoXD range of heavy-duty buckets has been available in the UK market for less than a year, so essentially the whole range is brand new. We are soon launching our range of utility buckets, which will be available for machines from 0.8–20 tonnes, and will feature bolt-on blades as standard.
Q) What do you look for in a manufacturing partner?
A) Our biggest focus when bringing new products to market is quality. We have a stellar reputation globally for the quality of our undercarriage parts and wanted to reflect this in our bucket range too.
We only partner with experienced manufacturers for our bucket range, who meet our own strict quality standards, and the relevant ISO accreditations.
Q) How competitive are you finding the market at the moment and how do you stand out in that environment?
A) Our standout design and heavy-duty range is our differentiating factor. We wanted to re-define the meaning of a standard duty bucket, so with adding in heel shrouds and wear strips as standard, we have added a huge amount of wear life to our buckets at no extra cost to the end user.
The UK market is competitive, but we believe we have the right product, and team behind it to succeed in growing our market share.
Q) How important is the bucket offering to the overall Astrak business? Do you see scope to expand this further?
A) As the latest product group to join the Astrak line-up, it’s immensely important to ensure its success. Every month interest and requirements are increasing, and we believe it will be a major part of our product line-up going into 2025 and beyond. We have introduced our standard range, and with the continuous development of hitches and tiltrotators, this will be an ever-expanding range.
Q) What trends are you seeing at the moment, in terms of what customers are looking for in buckets?
A) With recent regulation changes to foundation widths, there is a growing demand for 30” buckets in all machine sizes. We are reflecting this in our stock, as we aim to be the go-to supplier for volume and availability throughout the UK market for buckets, especially in the 13-20 tonne range.
