Lencrow presents “Building the Bomaq” – Part One

Meet Antonio Martinez – Engineer & Visionary – Bomaq CEO (Spain)

We want to provide you with all the information you need to decide if this is a product that you would use. It’s the first compact rough terrain forklift on the market and is unlike any other.

It has the potential to reduce forklift fleets and handles more applications and terrains than any other product. Lencrow Materials Handling has been working with Bomaq Industries since 2012. We invite you to discover the story behind the Bomaq and hear from the CEO and engineer Antonio Martinez (Spain) explain how the MP Series came to life.

Every Monday of this month we welcome you to learn more about building the Bomaq, what Bomaq means, see more demonstrations and hear reviews from Australian operators using the MP forklifts. To ensure you don’t miss anything we have placed a link at the bottom of Part I which will take you to our website so you can register your interest.

Antonio Martinez in his Bomaq workshop

What has been the most rewarding part of building the Bomaq so far?

“There are several moments that are special for me in this adventure: When I first started receiving the parts and storing them in the basement of my house in the country, when I sold the first unit to your father [Ross Grassick, MD, LMH], when I first drove the forklift with my 2 daughters on board and each time I receive a photo of a Bomaq or an email saying the forklifts are working well without problems. These are the moments that capture why building the Bomaq is so important to me.

Every day when I come to the workshop and open the door I enjoy that minute thinking about what I have created, thanks to a lot of factors, but mostly to a lot of hard work & thousands of hours dedicated to it.”

How has what you learned in previous roles influenced the product and your vision for Bomaq?

“I’ve always been a perfectionist in love with tidy and flawless design so I feel this has translated into the product as well as the company. I’m always listening and adapting the product and my company to the market. The market is continuously changing and competitors are running faster every day.”

What challenges have you and the team faced and what’s your process to finding solutions?

“There’s 2 incredible challenges I never thought would be so difficult. Firstly, finding people to work with me (not as easy as I thought) and the second is access to parts supply for assembly. The world has changed a lot since I worked at Mecano Continental (Mast Explorer). We have to be very careful to accomplish deliveries on time and also control costs. We’re a smaller manufacturer and most suppliers only supply in large quantities”

The Bomaq MP Series Forklift

Who is part of your team and how do they influence the project?

“I started alone but with the support of my family. I’ve since hired one person for assembling who was a colleague of mine at Mast Explorer and responsible for production. I also have one person who manages all the administration. So right now we are 3 people working at Bomaq. I know we are small but costs control is important so that we can optimize resources to expand the product.

I think the next movement will be to hire an electrical assembler and then an after sales service & support engineer.”

Bomaq is a newer product on the market. Can you outline the research & development phase? How did the concept come to life?

“If you want to establish a place and your resources are very limited you have to bring something new to the market, something never seen before. You also need to take care not to go too far away from the competitors. Sometimes if a product is too different it will create the opposite reaction. From my experience working in after sales, engineering, design and production with Mast Explorer you can take a lot of useful information if you listen. I listened and learned a great deal in 10 years. This is the foundation of Bomaq’s products, to offer customers what they have been demanding from a Rough Terrain forklift truck: ergonomics, design, simplicity, compact size, manoeuvrability, ease of use & easier maintenance.

I’ve tried to create a solution using the 10 years of feedback from owners and operators who use rough terrain forklifts. There are many competitors, for whom I have a great respect, like Ausa, Manitou, Piquersa, Agria, JCB and Liftking. Surely you know more than me but if you do the same as the others at the end it will be a price fight. A small company like mine would surely be lost. I can’t compete with other manufacturers so I created a solution that no one else has.

Another feature important to Bomaq’s design is the use of the latest technology in CAD [computer aided design] available. Purchasing the expensive technology means that I can do the work of 10 engineers incredibly precisely especially with everything is in one brain. The CAD also means I don’t have to share or adapt my design to 9 other technicians. Tools are very important to develop a job; sometimes things get very difficult without the appropriate tool to do the job. My computer is so advanced that if I need a specific tool and don’t have it the computer simulates it and then provides detailed instructions to make it.”