Seamus marks 50-years service with Terex firm

Terex Dungannon recently celebrated long-serving team member, Seamus (Seamie) O’Neill for reaching an incredible 50-year service anniversary.

Due to Covid-19, celebrations for this impressive milestone were not what they should have been to someone who has contributed so much to Terex and the Powerscreen brand for over five decades.

However, those who could attend showed their respect and affection for Seamie during a small, socially distanced celebration, when he was presented with some commemorative gifts by Kieran Hegarty, President, Terex Materials Processing and had a trip down memory lane with some photos from the archives.

Seamus initially started with Ulster Plant, the original name for what later became the Powerscreen business, on January 19 1971 at the age of 17. His first job was working in the guillotine and punch area, cutting and preparing parts for the Mark I, a machine that would become synonymous with Powerscreen and its global growth.

Four years later in 1975, he moved to ‘Factory Two’, now the main Terex Dungannon factory, and was part of the team building the new Mark II machines at a rate of 10 per week.

At that time, Seamus worked with some colleagues who went on to become exceptional Powerscreen dealers across north America, to include Micky Hughes, Brian Farmer, Terry Kelly and Paul Campbell among others. It was an incredible period of growth for the Powerscreen business.

In 1976 Seamus became a supervisor in the assembly of the Mark II machines, which led to him becoming a sub-contractor in 1981. He and his team built conveyors along with Tommy Canavan (who only recently retired) for the M60 conveyor range. When Powerscreen created the Chieftain range of screeners in the mid-1980s, Seamus was given the responsibility of producing screenboxes and power units.

When Powerscreen became part of Terex in 1999, Seamus continued as a sub-contractor until 2006, when he became supervisor of the power unit line, building engines for the Chieftain, Warrior and Horizon screeners.

In 2007 Seamus was again promoted, this time to Production Area Manager (PAM), in charge of Sub-assembly, Health & Safety, Facilities and the Farlough factory.

After the global recession in 2010, Seamus was appointed Plant Manager of Terex Farlough, which was by then diversifying into building wash plants as well as the largest screeners and trommels. Given his decades of experience and expert knowledge of our products, it was apt that Seamus became the Training Manager in Terex Dungannon in 2015, nurturing young talent in the business and supporting the Production Management team with improvement changes and as cover for absence.

During the last year, Seamus was a leader in the creation of the highly successful Welding and Fitting Academy in Terex Dungannon and as always, strives for excellence.

No stranger to lending his knowledge and expertise to other Terex facilities, Seamus was involved in establishing the new factory in Hosur, India which opened in 2010 and has become a beacon of safety and process excellence across Terex globally. Seamus spent time in India, happily educating and supporting the team as they introduced award-winning Terex manufacturing processes.

Kieran Hegarty, President, Terex Materials Processing said: “Seamie has had a remarkable and truly commendable career with Terex, seeing the company grow from the early days of Ulster Plant, developing into Powerscreen and then becoming part of Terex Corporation with facilities all over the world. His contributions to support the growth of our business and willingness to lend a hand to other Terex facilities have been significant.”

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