Today marks two years since our global launch event where we announced our surprise rebrand to Rokbak – the first new brand that Volvo Group has ever introduced! In our first year we were met with astounding success which we could never have imagined. From our one-year mark to now, we’ve gone on to achieve even bigger things! Let’s take a look bak’ at how far we’ve come over the past year…
Rokin’ the US
Around this time last year, we hosted our first ever Rokbak dealer conference where our North American dealers came together, with many meeting for the first time to build connections and plan for a busy year ahead in the region. With the huge demand for articulated haulers in North America it may be no surprise to some that 55-60% of haulers leaving our Motherwell factory head for this growing region. Since this time last year, demand for our Rokbak haulers has gone from strength to strength, and we have welcomed another two new dealers into this all-important market! We’ve partnered with one of Texas’ leading providers of construction equipment, Alpha & Omega Equipment Sales & Rental, and CASE Power & Equipment of Florida to strengthen our dealer network, with plans to sign up even more.
We headed into 2023 with a strong start at AED where we came together to discuss partnerships and looked forward to an exciting year ahead. After a long awaited six years, we headed to the bright lights of Las Vegas for our biggest event of the year; CONEXPO 2023, where our Rokbak haulers were on display for the first time ever at a North American tradeshow. With a record-breaking 139,000 visitors, we had a crazy but unforgettable few days, welcoming old and new faces, building our connections and showing not only North America but the world what Rokbak has to offer.
We’ve had your bak’
From international trade shows to dealer open days, we’ve been on hand to support many of our dealers and customers. A little closer to home than Vegas, in the EMEA region, our Rokbak haulers have exhibited at 7 shows in 7 countries. We joined long-term dealer Sleator Plant at the Balmoral Show 2023, where our RA40 took centre stage and was the largest machine at the show! Opportunities to showcase our haulers didn’t stop there and has been plentiful as we also attended Maxpo in Finland courtesy of our dealer Kivisampo Oy, where we met with potential customers to further establish the brand in the Nordic region. Similarly, the EMEA team have visited 14 different countries to support dealers, attend open days and speak with new connections.
From our Rokbak team venturing across the globe, many of our dealers and customers made the journey to visit us here in Motherwell. Our US dealer, Easton Sales & Rentals along with Canadian based dealer, Headwater Equipment joined us at our factory to meet our team in person, hear about future developments and had the unique opportunity to visit our Rokbak assembly line in the factory.
With new dealers and plenty of customers on the rise, our Customer Support team have been in demand. At the beginning of the year, Tommy Moore, Aftermarket Training Manager, spent two weeks touring Australia and New Zealand where he met with our customers and dealers to provide invaluable in-person training of both our RA30 and RA40 haulers. Tommy also spent a week in Indonesia with our dealer PT Uniquip carrying out training for a team of 15 technicians. Shortly after, we received an order of 30 RA40 haulers from them which have been hard at work for a few months now!
Putting in hard graft
We’re not all play and no hard work around here, our haulers have been busy levelling up job sites around the globe. From excavating notoriously indestructible minerals in Indonesia to the rugged conditions down the road from our Motherwell factory with Skene Group, our articulated haulers have been non-stop since they launched back in September 2021. Once our haulers reach our dealers, they don’t stay around for long, many are immediately sold and put straight to work. We had a year of firsts with many of our haulers finally reaching regions for the first time! From September 2022 alone, the EMEA region has seen 60% of its haulers go off to new customers, showing that the US is not our only growing region. In fact, EMEA saw a 25% increase in unit sales to customers and we have been continuing to prioritise this important region, particularly in France and Germany.
“It’s a good quality product and does exactly what we need it to do. Simple as that” says a satisfied Rokbak customer.
There wouldn’t be hard working haulers without our hard-working employees. With increasing demand, we have welcomed many new team members to our Motherwell factory this year. All at Rokbak are proud to have had another successful year full of hard graft, here’s to a third year of Rokbak making its mark in the industry!
