Combilift teams author for new children's book

Combilift CEO Martin McVicar hopes the books may even inspire the next generation of budding engineers.

Monaghan-based engineering firm Combilift has teamed up with award-winning author Emer Conlon to deliver an exciting new children's book.

Launched just in time for Christmas, at first glance, the pairing of a children’s book and one of the largest indigenous companies in Ireland, may not seem like a likely fit.

However, when asked about this, Louth-native Emer explains: “I approached Combilift just over a year ago, with a view to proposing a novel, unique way to communicate with existing and potential customers, as well as being involved in the education of the next generation.”

She added that the idea was to write a children’s book which ‘cartoon-ises’ the main Combilift products and transforms them into characters that children will love.

“I wanted to also use it as a marketing tool for the adults and so I used the USPs of the actual forklifts and turned them into the superpowers of the characters! That way both adults and children would get something from the book!” says Emer.

Martin McVicar, Managing Director at Combilift really liked the idea – especially the educational aspect for children and together they proceeded to the develop the concept and CombiKids was created. “So Combilift, is ‘Lifting Innovation’ and now CombiKids is ‘Lifting Imaginations’

Combilift’s unique portfolio of forklifts has revolutionised the way businesses handle and store materials. Employing more than 600 people and with customers in more than 85 countries, the multi-award winning local company has now set about capturing children's imaginations at grassroots level.

Along with interesting stories filled with vibrant characters, the book also contains a three-page Activity Section at the back of the book which includes something for all age groups. There is a mix of one-off activities (i.e. Join the Dots and a Word Search Puzzle) and activities that can be completed again and again (a Maze, Spot the Difference and a Map of the World).

Another important element of the books is they promote diversity, tolerance and acceptance.

Martin hopes the books may even inspire the next generation of budding engineers, who one day may even build their careers by working at Combilift.

“As well as motivating children to read, it is a great way to highlight Combilift to a wider community that may not be overly familiar with it.”

Combilift is a proud member of Guaranteed Irish, and the CombiKids book very much reflects this. “Supporting local businesses and the importance of Irish jobs - particularly during Covid19 - is incredibly important to the ethos of Combilift,” says Martin.

The CombiKids, which have been chosen for the bookshelf at the upcoming RTÉ Late Late Show, the book is printed by Winters Print in Drogheda, and illustrated by Jon McCormack from Kildare, with the typeset by idesignworx in Monaghan.

In addition, Combilift is also very mindful that charities are really suffering during the pandemic and has committed to donating all proceeds from book sales to Make a Wish Ireland.

To purchase the CombiKids’ book or for further information visit www.Combi-Kids.com.