16.07.2002

New owner for Kato in UK

Ownership of Kato Cranes (UK) Ltd and its parent company Kranlyft will pass to a new owner on 2nd September. Leading the purchase from current owner Metso is former Kranlyft managing director Christer Dijnér.

"Most customers will notice little or no difference as they will be dealing with the same people on the same phone number at the same premises" said Dijnér in an interview with Vertikal.net . He added that current owners Metso would contract with the new company to allow it to perform any warranty work needed on recently sold Kato cranes.

The UK company will be renamed Kato Parts & Service Ltd and will focus on parts and service for Kato, Marchetti and Maeda cranes. Dijnér says that the strength of the Japanese Yen makes Kato cranes difficult to sell at the moment and he therefore expects much of the business to be focussed on parts and service. Kato Cranes in Japan is not, and has never been, involved in the ownership of the company and it is expected that the Kato name may gradually be dropped to reflect the range of products offered by the company.

Kato Cranes (UK) had previously represented Spierings in the UK but Paul Rosevere of Kato Cranes said that this agreement had now come to an end and would not be renewed.

Kranlyft was previously Snorkel's dealer in Scandinavia, but Dijnér said that the new company would not be active in the powered access market. Kranlyft continues to represent Kato and Marchetti in Scandinavia and sells the Maeda range of mini crawlers throughout Europe.