28.04.2005

Liebherr open new UK premises

Isolde and Stephanie Liebherr formally opened Liebherr Great Britain’s new headquarters in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire today. In front of a large number of invited guests.

At the same time Liebherr announced, what it claimed is the largest single All Terrain crane order ever placed in Europe.The order, from Ainscough crane hire, is for 91 cranes with a value of £30 million
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Isolde Liebherr and daughter Stephanie cut the tape officially opening the UK facility

The Ainscough order, (reported in the March/April issue of Cranes&Access) is for 30 x LTM1030-2.1, 38 x LTM1055-3.1 and 23x LTM1095-5.1. The units will be delivered throughout 2005 and into early 2006. This brings the total number of units ordered by Ainscough in the past 12 months to 121 units.
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The Three Ainscoughs L-R Brendan, Martin and James with Hans Georg Frey,Geschäftsführer of Liebherr Ehingen far left and David Milne Director Liebherr GB centre

The new Liebherr facility represents a £15 million investment in the UK market and joins other substantial facilities in Wigan and Bathgate. The Biggleswafe site covers over 9 acres (3.7 Hectares) with workshops, parts and testing buildings of over 5,000 Square Metres, plus a three storey office block.
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Liebherr GB's new facility in Biggleswade

The workshops are huge, measuring 90 metres long by 66 metres wide with a headroom of 18 metres. Equipment includes four 25 tonne overhead cranes, a boom testing rig and the largest rolling road in the UK. Outide the test pad has been constructed to handle full overload tests on cranes of up to 1,000 tonnes.
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One part of the Liebherr's new workshops in Biggleswade

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Liebherr has the largest rolling road in the UK

The parts warehouse has nine metre high narrow aisle racking with 10,000 line item locations and is linked to other Liebherr parts locations.

In total 180 staff are employed by Liebherr Great Britain Ltd, its revenues this year are expected to reach a record of between £75 and £100 million, roughly two thirds of which will be cranes, the balance being earthmoving and other construction products.
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The offices at Liebherr Great Britain's new premises in Biggleswade

Hans-Georg Frey said that with modern machines now so complex it is essential that manufacturers provide a first class after sales support “In the old days you could repair a crane with a hammer, these days you need a computer”.

The Liebherr strategy is to continue to build its network of wholly owned customer support facilities such as this one in Biggleswade. In June of this year it will open a new facility in Dubai followed in September with one in Huston Texas.


Liebherr has experienced a strong first quarter up 10 to 12 percent on last year, Frey said that it is still too early to forecast the level of growth for 2005 but it is expected to be a record year for the group.