Johnston Sweepers re-brands to Bucher Municipal Ltd.

Johnston Sweepers has been rebranded as Bucher, along with six other brands of municipal equipment suppliers owned by Bucher Industries.

Bucher, who has owned Johnston Sweepers for over 15 years, has made the decision to move to a single brand to demonstrate to the market the wide range and quality of products the company produces in the municipal sector.

Bucher Industries consists of five divisions, with an annual turn-over of around £2.6 billion. The company brands, which include Bucher Hydraulics, produce products which are used widely in municipal equipment and which are recognised as global market leaders.  Moving to a single brand for all the products in the hydraulics sector has helped the division to grow and has led to greater customer awareness of the wide product range the company’s hydraulics division has to offer.  By bringing all the sub brands under the single brand Bucher aims to emulate this business model throughout the organisation, demonstrating to customers the quality and standards which are consistent across the wider range of products it offers.

In the UK, Johnston Sweepers already represents Bucher Winter Equipment and mounts spreaders at its manufacturing facility in Surrey.  From January 2020, J. Hvidtved Larsen Sewer Cleaning Equipment were also be brought into the Johnston Sweepers business, and in order to accommodate the additional products Bucher Municipal has announced a further £11m investment in the factory site in Dorking. The new facility will be in operation by 2021. Bucher UK will be producing Truck Mounted Sweepers, Airport Sweepers, Sewer Cleaning Units and Spreaders from Dorking.

What does this mean for our UK customers?

Improved Service Support

The merger of JHL and Johnston Sweepers in the UK offers both customer bases an improved support network. The Former JHL service centres in Preston, Coalville and Slough are ideally located to complement Johnston’s national network of service centres in Dorking, Bristol, Leeds and Livingston, and the combined operation will mean that there will be more than 50 field service engineers trained to work on all Bucher products. The state-of-the-art workshops are able to cater for all repairs and servicing of sewer cleaning machines, spreaders, ploughs and tankers, as well as sweepers, providing a fully joined-up service and after-care provision for all customers.

For customers of Bucher Municipal Rentals, the new service network will mean that both short and long term hire of spreaders are now well supported from the seven nationwide service centres.  UK Parts support still comes from the Global Parts Centre in Dorking, and JHL parts will be added to the current parts stock holding. 

A wider choice of products

Under the previous dual brand system of Bucher and Johnston, each brand had unique products that were not available to the other.  Under the new single brand structure, products not previously offered by Johnston are now available to customers, offering a wider choice.  The City Cat 2020 will be the first such product introduced to the Johnston range, and the new City Cat V20 and V20s will be available from March 2020, offering a 3.5ton articulated diesel and electric, and a 4.8 ton version which offers a 2 ton payload. 

The new Bucher V802 rear suction 8m3 sweeper, which has been designed for the contractor market, will also become available in the UK, delivering true back-to-black sweeping capability in one pass at an affordable price.

More Developments and Innovations

Bucher Municipal invests significantly in product development, spending in excess of €4.5m in 2019 alone.  This has allowed the company to develop many new products and services over the past two years, leading the way in municipal innovation.  MBS Snowploughs, Bucher Assist, Bucher Connect, an Electric Spreader, Electric Compact Sweepers, First Response Sewer Cleaning Trucks, and the latest Electric Truck Mounted Sweeper are amongst some of the innovative new products brought to the market, and with more class-leading products planned for 2020, it is clear to see the advantages that the move to a single brand will deliver for customers of Bucher products.