24.05.2011

New RTH president for Manitou

Manitou has appointed Eric Lambert as president of its Rough Terrain Handling division following the recent departure of Christian Caleca.

Lambert, 43, joins the telehandler manufacturer from Alstom Grid, where he has worked since 2009 as managing director of its Aix-les-bains site, specialising in high voltage gas isolated substations.

Most of his career has been with the Renault group, which he joined in 1994. Over the next 15 years he worked in various areas of the business including: metal cutting in Sandouville, innovation project leader at the Guyancourt Technocentre, Logan project leader with Dacia in Rumania and deputy director of the Douai factory as well as manufacturing coordinator for all Renault plants.
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Eric Lambert

His education also included civil engineering and construction at the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées – so construction equipment will not be entirely foreign to him.

Manitou’s Rough Terrain Handling division represents over 70 percent of its revenues, mostly made up of Telehandler sales, but also includes aerial work platforms as well as rough terrain mast type fork trucks. It had revenues of €586 million in 2010 and employs 1,700 in four locations -Ancenis, Candé and
Laillé (Pays de Loire, France) and Castelfranco, Italy.

Manitou chief executive Jean-Christophe Giroux said: “Eric Lambert brings a fresh look, a manufacturing background and a personal leadership which together represents real assets for our operational recovery. I am convinced he will be for RTH, Manitou’s flagship, a powerful change agent to move away from the past and invent a better future.”

Lambert added: “I am very excited to join a proven market leader with still
untapped growth potential. I am also eager to join a dynamic and ambitious leadership team, and to revisit RTH operational chain for a better support of our dealers and customers.”