16.01.2006

Riwal to spend €80 million and opens in France

Riwal the Dordrecht headquartered crane and access rental company has committed to one of the largest single orders for powered access equipment ever placed.

The bulk of its purchase is a €60 million ($72 million) order for 1,600 new JLG lifts, one of the largest single orders for JLG equipment ever placed, certainly the largest it has ever received from a European company.

The JLG order includes Toucan mast booms, boom lifts from across its range and scissor lifts of up to 15 metres as well as a number of JLG Telehandlers.

Other purchases include a mix of 100 booms and scissors from Genie, many of which are destined for France, 40 large scissor lifts from Holland Lift, 35 crawler mounted booms from Aichi, its first truck mounts from Italian producer CMC and a number of trailer and special models from Omme.

Jacques Catinot, who until late last year headed Genies sales, marketing and distribution in Europe, has joined Riwal in order to set up Riwal France. The operation is already operational, from shared premises near Chartres which is around 80km southwest of Paris.

The aim is the have the new operation properly established by mid year, eventually in a building and location specific to our needs and suitable for the long term.

Doron Livnat and Dick Schalekamp, two of the three owners of Riwal, told Vertikal.Net that the company “does not intend to create a storm in France”, there is enough room in the market for us to find a place without unsettling anyone” .

“It is not our aim to ‘buy-into’ the market. France was not in our sights for this year but in Jacques Catinot we saw the type of person that we know will be successful as a partner in the Riwal family. France, like Denmark is also only a trucking day away from our base here at Dordrecht" they added.

The two also stressed that it had worked with JLG to plan the deliveries into its production schedule to ensure that it can deliver without causing supply problems elsewhere, while meeting Riwal’s expansion and fleet renewal plans.

The fleet additions will take the Riwal full service fleet in Holland, Denmark, Israel, Slovenia and France up to well over 5,000 units by mid 2006. This order does not include around 650 units already ordered for the RiRent joint venture re -rent fleet.

An exclusive interview with Doron Livnat and Dick Schalekamp will feature in the next issue of Cranes&Access due out at the end of the month.