Technological development and a tight-knit team has helped HE Silos reach its 50th year of doing business. ABHR speaks to third-generation family member Stevie Leigh Morrison about how it plans to grow.
When flying to the moon, the computer that guided Apollo 11, the Apollo Guidance Computer, had just 32,768 bits of RAM memory. Today, an average smartphone has around seven million times more memory.
Computers aren’t the only technology that has made a giant leap during the past 50 years. Vehicles are safer, cleaner and verging on being autonomous, while similar improvements have been made in the bulk handling sector.
Advances in engineering in particular have allowed HE Silos to build bigger and better silos than ever before. The company, originally known as Hillston Engineering, began operating in 1969 in New South Wales and has been growing ever since.
Stevie Leigh Morrison, a third-generation member of the family business, says farmers and other silo customers now have a deeper understanding about how to best preserve grain and other bulk materials to get a better return on investment.
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“Back in the day you could just stick a silo on a farm and hope for the best. They’d use them to store grain from the harvest to sell later when the prices became a bit higher,” she says.
“Short-term storage isn’t really a thing anymore, as longer-term storage and maintaining the proteins, moisture and quality of the grain have become more important.”
The company strives to provide high-quality silos of all shapes and sizes, whether it’s a 1000-tonne flat bottom silo or a four-tonne silo with a cone base.
Morrison says the success of the business, even through periods of crippling drought, can be attributed to the family’s tight bond.
“We always have each other’s back and work closely together. We believe in what we are doing and have since the get go. But more importantly, we’re passionate about what we produce,” she says.
“Most family businesses don’t make it, so for us to be still going strong is a testament to our dedication. I work with my mum and dad, and my grandpa can still be found in the workshop occasionally.”
At the start of its journey, HE Silos’ founders, Ivan and Patricia Morrison, would build whatever their customers needed, from silos to sheds or anything in between. The pair retired in January 2006 and have passed on the business to their children.
The company makes use of two NSW-based factories, one in Forbes and one in Gunnedah, and employs around 70 staff across both.
The majority of machinery within the factories were built by HE Silos itself, which the Morrisons say gives them a fundamental understanding of the manufacturing process. In addition, the factories make use of best-practice technologies and engineering processes to ensure maximum efficiency and safety.
Safety has also become a much larger priority for HE Silos’ customers. As a result, the company has put more emphasis on developing equipment that reduces the chance of falls while working at heights and manual handling.
All of its silos can be retrofit with ladders, cages and platforms, so that users can ascend to the top of the silo safely. A remote lid opening kit allows the silo to open without needing to climb it as well.
One innovation the team at HE Silos is particularly proud of is its Thermal Insect Control System, which allows farmers to fumigate a grain silo without needing to climb ladders.
“We were up against big multinational companies, so it was a wonderful surprise when we took out that award,” Morrison says.
“By developing this control system, we’ve eliminated all of the unsafe operations that are involved with fumigating a silo, such as the handling of chemicals at an unsafe height or climbing the silo multiple times.”
Morrison adds that a big factor into the push for additional safety is the fact that many farmers now have additional workers on their site and want to ensure their property is a safe workplace environment – for themselves and their employees.
The team at HE Silos strongly believes in the expression ‘work smarter, not harder’. To do this, it makes use of a full-time research and development team which have been engineering a number of new technologies set to launch in 2020.
Products are tested on a dedicated site in regional NSW to try and find the best way to improve them before they roll out to market.
A focus on innovation is part of HE Silos’ guiding philosophy, “because every grain counts”. Morrison says each grain the company keeps at a high quality for later consumption is a grain that can go towards establishing food security.
“The climate is changing and we’re seeing more intense droughts, floods and fires than ever before,” she says.
“For us to stay in the 21st Century, we have to be on top of our game and move with the times. The time is now to act to ensure that my future grandkids can still be part of this company and have food in their belly.”