01.10.2012

Cargotec restructures HQ

Cargotec, owner of Hiab and Kalmar has confirmed its intention to decentralise its operations into three separate stand alone businesses reporting into a small ‘holding company’ type headquarters.

The change will mean the loss of around 245 Cargotec head office staff, 130 in Finland, 35 in Sweden and 80 in other countries.

The move follows the announcement in mid-September that it was seeking an Asian stock market listing for its MacGregor Marine business and that it would break its Service division up, returning service responsibility to the three separate businesses – Load Handling which is Hiab, Terminal which is Kalmar and Marine which is MacGregor. Click here to see Cargotec to float Marine business
No timetable has been issued, but one assumes that it will want to have as much of the change in place in time for the start of the new fiscal year on January 1st

Vertikal Comment

This is a total about turn for Cargotec which only two years ago was on a major centralisation push trying to integrate what are three quite separate businesses. The change about turn, its second in as many years is admirable. All too often large ‘group’ type companies follow a strategy that clearly doesn’t work, only to persist in trying to make it work out of fear to be seen to be indecisive or a matter of senior executive vanity.

This is a good move on the part of Cargotec and with the right people heading each of the three businesses it could have a golden period ahead of it.