Fletcher Moorland: the supplier you didn’t know you needed
Fletcher Moorland has provided engineering services for nearly 80 years. With a wealth of experience in electrical and electro-mechanical engineering, the company works with major companies in the automotive, power generation, logistics, and manufacturing industries, and has worked in Rail for more than three decades.
Rail Engineer sat down with Managing Director Matt Fletcher to discuss the services the company offers, how it sets itself apart from its competitors, and the importance of its work for industry and our wider society.
Could you give us a brief history of Fletcher Moorland and an overview of the services you provide?
Fletcher Moorland is a multi-faceted engineering company with divisions in repair, sales, manufacturing, consultancy, and reliability. We’ve been providing engineering services to industry since my grandfather Sam Fletcher started the business in the mid-1940s. Initially, the business focused on electric motor rewinds and that’s still something we’re heavily involved with. Today, life-cycle extension and maintenance are at the core of what we do.
We’ve been working with the rail industry for over 30 years. Our clients include most major rail transport authorities and operators across the UK, and we deal with everything from traction motors through to electronic controls for tram, passenger rail, and freight. We’re also specialists in tackling legacy equipment, and we’re currently repairing a great number of driver-call handsets, which keeps our 3D printing department busy. The company encompasses repairs, sales, manufacturing, and reliability – and we fulfil all our customers needs from our workshop in Stoke-on-Trent, which is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Fletcher Moorland is the go-to company for customers who have hit a brick wall – whether that’s because manufacturers refuse to repair their equipment, or other repair companies are unable to do so. We take on projects that others will not, and we respond quickly.
You’ve mentioned that manufacturers rarely offer repairs for their equipment. Why is that?
It’s simply a case of profitability. Manufacturers often claim that equipment is obsolete or too old to be repaired, but that’s not always correct. For example, we’re regularly repairing traction equipment from the 1960s, we come to the aid of steelworks which are using older equipment, and we even support Sellafield, which was designed in the 1950s.
Manufacturers might say that repairs aren’t as reliable as replacing equipment, or that specific software is required to complete specific jobs. This isn’t necessarily true, and we use the same equipment that many of the manufacturers use to make these repairs. We’ll always support older equipment and, when our clients do decide to upgrade, they can do so through choice, rather than being forced to by the OEM.
Do many companies provide a similar service? What makes Fletcher Moorland stand apart from the rest?
There are many companies which concentrate on motor rewinds, but that’s mainly for an industrial base. More specific skills are required when working with the rail industry and there are far fewer businesses providing a service quite like ours. Our desire to solve problems is what stands us apart from our competitors. We’re the supplier that customers go to when everybody else has said ‘no’.
For example, a standout project that really launched our name and can-do approach in the rail industry was a refurbishment project for Class 90 freight locos. Their air blast circuit breakers (ACB) must have been from the 1980s. Nobody would touch the project, but we were eager to have a look. There were compressed air cylinders in there, all different contacts. We took the equipment into the workshop and reversed engineered it, manufacturing some of the parts we needed, including copper ball bearings for the swinging arm and copper contactors.
Once we’ve solved a problem like that, clients come back to us with further repairs that they once thought impossible. I truly believe we are one of the reasons that some locomotives can continue to operate without going through multi-million-pound upgrades. Another differentiator is our speed of turnaround – very often, suppliers and manufacturers can take some time to repair equipment. Usually, the first time we’re called is when there is a breakdown situation and an urgent repair is needed.
Having a true 24-hour manned workshop helps to speed the repair process and get equipment back to our customers quickly. We’ve seen an instance where one supplier took nine months to deliver. At Fletcher Moorland we’re reducing that to two or three weeks. That’s critically important in an industry like rail where clients may be facing a shortage of equipment, or reduced availability of parts for maintenance.
Sustainability is a major concern these days. How does your work help to meet the needs of the rail industry without compromising on this goal?
Sustainability is nothing new, it’s the old idea of ‘make do and mend’ but rebranded. Eighty percent of our business is refurbishment or remanufacturing of components. Repairing, rather than replacing is a sustainable practice and needs to be adopted on a wider scale.
Our work has a positive effect on the planet as we’re actively preventing items from going to landfill. Though it’s taken some time, it seems as though industry is now moving away from its throw-away model and, when we perform work for our customers, we provide a full report which gives them a breakdown of the waste they’ve saved as a result of the repair.
But we don’t just repair faults – what we do is to refurbish everything that comes into our workshops. Our policy is that everything is to be as good as it was when new, if not better, so that any future failures can be pushed further back.
The rail industry has had its ups and downs of late. What major challenges have you seen and how are you helping to overcome them?
The biggest challenge for us in recent times has been Covid. That said it also opened up a few opportunities. Prior to the pandemic we employed around 86 people and had a lot of business with the steel and car industries. We remained open throughout the pandemic, supporting manufacturing and critical industries such as food and drink manufacturing, power generation, transportation, and healthcare. Like many others, we were forced to furlough staff and had to make some very tough decisions.
At the same time, many of our customers were making redundancies and many engineers did not return to their old jobs – some had taken up alternative careers which may not have paid the same but were far less stressful. This trend only increased the need for our expertise. Additionally, the recession that followed Covid also brought benefits as companies increasingly opted to repair equipment, rather than replace it.
Recruitment is a problem across the industry, but we’re fortunate that we have no problem finding people. Since Covid, we have managed to increase our workforce to 120 people. Many of our staff come to us on recommendation from others working in the business. Four of our staff have been with us for over 50 years, and they wouldn’t stay if we weren’t serious about the work we do.
You’re also reaching out to the new generation of engineers – could you tell us more about that?
The skills gap is a problem for rail, but we’re doing what we can to close it as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, there are very few apprenticeships in motor re-wiring these days – they tend to focus on mechanical fitting. Electric motor repair hasn’t been seen as a required skill for some time in the UK as companies have focused on replacing rather than repairing and electric motors are relatively cheap these days.
We were recently approached by Stoke-on-Trent College to support 16 of their HNC General Engineering Apprentices by providing ‘Day in Industry’ workshops. We welcomed the opportunity to support the college and tailored a split half-day workshop to provide real-world insight into electric motor maintenance, servo motor maintenance, and the application of reliability services in these fields.
We’ve decided that we’re going to do this for more apprentices going forward, putting some more structure behind it and giving more young people the opportunity to get some hands-on experience. This is a great industry and one in which you can have a job for life.
Finally, do you have any thoughts on the future direction of the industry? How do you see Fletcher Moorland fitting into that?
Clearly, electrification is the future of transport and we’re starting to see similar motors being used in trams systems, electric buses, and other modes, so there’s a crossover with the new technology there. We’re also starting to see new equipment being repaired for the first time and beginning to discover why these items fail. This is where our reliability services can help because we can begin to prevent equipment failing in the future.
In an industry where there are penalties if something breaks down on the track, that is imperative. That said, there’ll always be a need for repairs and we have very high standards here. Quality is key to everything we do. Our electro-mechanical workshop is EASA accredited and we are an IECEx certified service facility for Ex repairs. We also publish our repair standard which shows the materials we use are superior to a standard OEM product.
Luckily for us, our services will always be required as you’ll never get rid of friction, and equipment will always be prone to wear out. When that happens, we can confidently say you’ll be hard pushed to find another company that offers an equal range of services.
