02.07.2001

Haulotte expansion continues

Pierre Saubot, Haulotte’s ebullient chairman, is not bothered about the decision of US companies like JLG, SkyJack and UpRight to switch production to Europe: “I would be very surprised if we end up with too many machines in Europe – the market is still growing very quickly”. He predicts that it will take US companies at least 18 months to get used to building in Europe.

Why is Saubot so confident? Largely because of his interpretation of statistics showing worldwide utilisation of platforms. In the US there are 1.8 access platforms per 1000 inhabitants. In the UK there is 1 per 1000 inhabitants. In France the figure is 0.56 per 1000 and in Germany the figure is just 0.37 access platforms per 1000 inhabitants. The total European market has meanwhile been growing rapidly. From about 6000 in 1985 to around 30 000 today, still less than half of the annual US market of about 70 000 units a year. Within Europe, Germany accounted for 11.5 per cent of sales last year, less than the total sales to the Benelux region and approximately half of the total sales to France.

For this reason Saubot is confident that despite current concerns about the German economy European demand will continue to grow.

* Saubot bought the company in 1985 when it was still France’s “second” mobile crane builder. He quickly decided to focus on building access platforms and built 750 in 1997. In 2002, says Saubot, the company could build 23000 access platforms “if the demand is there”. Saubot recently pulled out of negotiations to buy two more factories from Terex (see earlier story), but says the impact of this cancellation is “zero” adding that “in another few months we will have our own 30 metre booms and will develop our own large scissor lifts”.