01.04.2008

Liebherr Nenzing targets South Africa

Gordon Clark, a 17 year Liebherr veteran who has spent the last 10 years in the UK and Irish market has relocated to South Africa to head a major expansion in Africa and set up a new maritime business unit in the country. Clark will continue to provide project support to the UK/Ireland sales force.
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Gordon Clark

Service is currently provided locally by Liebherr Africa Pty Ltd in Springs some 50 km east of Johannesburg, but Nenzing is in the process of establishing a separate service station purely for support Liebherr’s maritime products. It will be headed by a factory trained service manager from within the Liebherr group.

Leopold Berthold sales director said: “Local contact with the customer and excellent after sales cover is the key to our success in Africa. Our product is good, the service is good and we respond to our customer feedback. These are the keys to long-term mutually beneficial relationships.”
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A Liebherr LHM500 port mobile in South Africa

Clark added, “Our customer base here is already large and growing and it will be an exciting challenge for me to further develop this.”

In 2007 Liebherr set a new record, delivering over 11 mobile harbour cranes to various African customers- three in Tunisia, two units each in Benin and Nigeria and single units to Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, and Namibia accounting for 13 percent of the company’s sales volume.

This represents an 83 percent increase over 2006 when only six units were sold in the region and is the company's best performance so far on the continent. Over the period of the last five years the Liebherr mobile harbour crane population in Africa was more then doubled up, reaching 42 units in total.

Liebherr also sold seven reach stackers in Africa in 2007, the largest deal was signed with Empresa Portuaria do Lobito in Angola for three LRS 645s. A repeat order to two LRS 645 was received from the Egyptian Ministry of Defence, while other units went to Nigeria and Tanzania.

The new business unit is expected to be fully operational by the middle of this year.