Photo courtesy of Prado.
The company entered bankruptcy at the end of 2010 after its metallic buildings division went into the red due to the financial crisis in 2008.
Prado was restarted in 2015 by some of the old staff along with a new investor. The previous owners of Prado are not involved in the business now. The company leadership includes: Javier Resano, commercial director for the silo division; Miguel Gutierrez, industrial manager; and Manu Jimenez, technical manager for the silo department. The new owners purchased the Prado brand and the intellectual property.
This year, the company started back into the silo industry and so far, the reception has been positive, Resano said.
“We have had comments from customers saying that they are glad to have Prado in the market again,” he said. “We continue with the same concept of top technology and quality products, as well as our well-known customer care orientation.”
This May, Prado started work on a project for Muntons PLC in Bridlington, United Kingdom. It has delivered two silos for barley storage with a total capacity of 13,000 cubic meters. The customer has since placed a new order for six hopper silos for malt storage with a total capacity of 4,350 cubic meters.
“From my perspective, we are very pleased with the quality of the silos,” said Guy Newsam, general manager, malt production.
Prado’s flat-bottom silos can be built on flat or conical concrete foundations with a range of volumes from 39 cubic meters to 25,232 cubic meters.
Flat-bottom silos are supplied with all required accessories for complete plant operation: grain sweep augers, level and temperature controls, aeration systems with built-in fans, and all required supporting structures.
Hopper-bottom silos are erected on a supporting structure with volumes ranging from 80 cubic meters to 2,000 cubic meters. All hoppers are designed for highly cyclical loading and unloading processes. Standard angles are supplied at 47 and 60 degrees. Hopper silos have a smooth wall hopper transition with no steps or flanges to offer the cleanest product discharge from the silo.
Silos are supported on a rolled ring beam with welding. The entire support structure and the ring beam are hot-dip galvanized. The supporting structure is made of hot rolled profiles.
“Our strict quality control allows us to minimize the failures in our deliveries, both in quality and delivery time,” Resano said. “As per our internal control, 98.6% of our deliveries fulfill the agreed quality and delivery date with customers.”
Prado is working on the redesign of its silos to further improve the technical characteristics. The company has developed a new calculation software that allows it to supply silos with a variable number of stiffeners per sheet – 2, 3 or 4 – in order to keep a single plate solution stiffener.
The company also is developing new silos, including hopper silos up to 13 meters in diameter with more than 2,500 cubic meters of storage capacity. New flat-bottom silos are under development with a diameter range of 32 to 44 meters with more than 30,000 cubic meters of storage capacity.
