11.12.2012

Schalekamp exits Riwal

Dick Schalekamp junior, shareholder and member of the supervisory board of Riwal, has announced that he will leave the company as of January 1st
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Dick Schalekamp

Schalekamp stepped down as chief executive a year ago, since then his official role has been initiating international business development, international sales, purchasing relationships and mergers & acquisitions.
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He says that he will now withdraw from the access industry entirely and concentrate on developing his private investment portfolio. His shares in the business will be taken over by ProDelta, the business controlled by Doron Livnat that already owns the rest of Riwal’s shares.

Riwal chief executive Norty Turner said: “For the past 25 years, Dick Schalekamp has lead Riwal to become one of the international market leaders in the access industry. His entrepreneurial spirit and creativity in building our company have resulted in a rental and sales organization with over 900 employees dedicated to the commercial operation of 13,000 aerial work platforms in 16 countries across three continents. We thank him for his invaluable contributions and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”

Vertikal Comment

The Schalekamp family has been involved with Riwal since Dick Schalekamp senior established it in 1968 as Richards & Wallington International, the Dutch division of the UK based crane rental company.

He bought the business in 1980, after the Richards and Wallington group ran into financial difficulties, renaming it Riwal in 1987. Doron Livnat began co-operating with the company from this time, taking a 33 percent holding in the business in 2000.

Dick junior, the youngest of three boys, joined the company in 1986 - taking over the reins from his father in the 1989 when senior transferred the ownership of the company to his three sons Jaap, Jan-Dick and Dick junior.

Jan-Dick tragically died from a heart attack while playing football in 1995, and then Jaap left the company at the end of 2008, after the crane business, which he looked after, was sold to Sarens. He then sold his shares equally to his brother and Livnat, giving the two of them an equal 50 percent holding.

The Schalekamps and Riwal have managed to build a large multinational rental company, while managing to maintain the intimate culture of a small family business. They did this by focusing on people and relationships above all else, often moving into a new market when they found an individual who fit with the rest of the team, rather than selecting the market and looking for the person.

Although the company has been necessarily changing over the past few years, it still strives to retain the family ethos and stresses the ‘Team Riwal’ message. However the departure of the last Schalekamp - although predictable - will make that just slightly more difficult.

However don’t expect any significant changes, Schalekamp’s departure has been carefully planned and Riwal still has a very strong and unique culture, while Livnat, the ultimate owner, is an exceptionally canny operator and has a keen nose for what is important and what is not. Riwal, now the third largest powered access rental company in Europe after the TVH/Mateco merger, is likely to step up its growth plans to benefit from the full economic cycle.

Having said all that it is sad to see the departure of the Schalekamp name from the crane and access business after more than 45 years.