29.12.2006

Kalmar acquires CVS Ferrari

Kalmar Industries the container handling division of the Cargotec group of Finland has reached agreement to acquire the privately owned Italian group CVS-Ferrari.

CVS initially made crane carriers but in recent times has specialised in container handling solutions, acquiring reach stacker company Belotti in 2002.

CVS Ferrari has revenues in the region of €85 million and employs 305; in contrast Kalmar has revenues of around €1.2 billion with around 3,400 employees.

Kalmar says that CVS will remain a separate entity within Kalmar. The business is based in Roveleto di Cadeo near Piacenza in Northern Italy. It operates two assembly plants plus 12 small component production centres, giving it a high degree of vertical integration.
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A Ferrari Reachstacker

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A Kalmar Reach stacker

The companies reach-stackers are sold in North America under the Taylor brand, under and agreement which dates back six years.

The two companies came into contact back in 2004 when CVS purchased Papalini, the Kalmar dealer for Italy. That business was re-branded as CVS service and is responsible for selling, supporting and even renting the CVS-Ferrari group products.

Christer Granskog, president of Kalmar said: 'We are pleased with this agreement, which strengthens Kalmar's presence both in new equipment and services in Mediterranean markets. We believe that the synergies with our existing operations will further strengthen CVS Ferrari's competitiveness.'
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Christer Granskog

Giuseppe Ferrari, group president of CVS-Ferrari said 'Our family has successfully developed CVS Ferrari to its current size and position in nearly 40 years. We believe that Kalmar will be a good home and a strong owner for CVS Ferrari in order to meet future global challenges. We see a good fit between the two companies, and we have found in Kalmar an owner committed to develop CVS Ferrari's operations.’

Vertikal Comment

CVS is a name that was well known in crane circles in the early 80’s, the company provided crane carriers for a number of manufacturers including Grove which used CVS as a short cut to getting back into the All Terrain market and Sumitomo which mounted its superstructures onto five, six and seven axle CVS carriers.

With the future of the independent crane carrier producer looking doubtful the company branched out into port and Ro-Ro tractors and in 1993 built its first reach stacker the Ferrari 100. Belotti which claims to have originated the reach stacker concept in 1976, gave the company a much stronger foothold in the reach-stacker market to compete with companies such as PPM and Kalmar.

This acquisition certainly looks like a good match, competing with Kalmar in Northern Europe would have been a tough challenge, while selling into a large number of southern European and third world markets has been hard for Kalmar. With the two product lines in its portfolio Kalmar should be able to strengthen its already strong grip on the reach stacker market.

The combined distribution networks also offer some excellent opportunities for cost savings as well as providing a larger number of outlets for the combined group’s products.