18.01.2005

New president for Cramo Netherlands

Cramo one of Europes largest rental companies, with a fleet of aerial lifts approaching 4,000 units, has appointed Erik van Leeuwenstijn as president of Cramo's general rental business in the Netherlands effective January 1.

Van Leeuwenstijn (39) has been working as product group manager in the Asset Management unit a traveling between Holland and Cramo’s head office in Stockholm. Prior to that, he was head of sales at Motrac (forklift trucks) in the Netherlands.

"This new job provides a great challenge both financially and operationally. Profitability has been negatively impacted by operations in the Netherlands not having the 'critical mass' that's needed. Growth is thus one of my priorities. The fact that the position of president was vacant for a period has created a bit of uncertainty. My other great ambition is to create a strong sense of teamwork, job satisfaction and a drive to 'be the best'."

In addition to the Cramo General rental business, Cramo operations in Holland include Gunco, one of Holland,s leading access and telehandler rental companies and HDW the crane and access sales companythat distributes, Genie, Teupen and Terex products.

The Cramo businesses in the Holland report into Paul van Berendonck, Cramo's group director for the entire BeNeLux area who is also the managing director of Gunco.

Cramo is jointly owned by PON of Holland, Caterpillar and ABN-Amro bank, in the past two years Cramo has been transforming its branding from Cramo to Cramo CAT rental stores.

Othe appointements announced at the same time include:

Cramo Finland

Jarmo Laasanen (54), acting president of Cramo Finland since August, has accepted a permanent position as president effective immediately.
His previous jobs include president of Addsoft Solutions, vice president of Merkantildata Finland, president of Getronics Finland, president of Olivetti Finland and business area manager at Unisys, Finland.
"Cramo is an exciting challenge in a field that's completely new to me. It's a modern rental company in a growing industry with competitive services and a professional organization," says Laasanen of his new job. "In Finland, we're planning for a rapid expansion, with upwards of 30 Cat Rental Stores within five years. This is quite feasible as long as we work and keep the customer's best interest in mind."

Cramo Latvia

Uldis Rungevics (34) is appointed acting president for Cramo's new Latvian operations.
His previous jobs include business area manager at Kesko Agro Latvia, product manager at Kesko Agro Latvia and head of sales at Valtra Inc.

"My ambition is to develop such strong operations that the Cramo brand and the Cat Rental Store become synonymous in Latvia with customer service. That means a lot of hard work, and a great willingness to learn from the extensive experience already found in the Group, both for me personally and for Cramo Latvia as a whole," says Rungevics.