09.03.2007

Stirnimann announces management succession

Stirnimann AG the Olten, Switzerland, based crane and access distribution company has announced the appointment of Lorenzo Cassani (46) as general manager - designate.
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Lorenzo Cassani

Stirnimann president Alfred (Al) Wyss is aiming to formally hand over the management responsibilities to Cassani at the company’s Annual General Meeting later this month and then depart the day to day activities after the Bauma exhibition in April. Wyss will then remain as a non executive director of Stirnimann.

Wyss (63) joined Stirnimann, the then Richier and Grove distributor, in 1970 as parts and service manager, having just returned to Switzerland from South Africa where he had been employed by Brown Boveri.
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Al Wyss

Stirnimann was at that time still owned by Franz Stirnimann, who was also an artist practicing under the name of Sti.

In 1978 Wyss took over the sales and marketing responsibility for all products including earthmoving and hydraulic cranes. It was around this time that the company was acquired by ERO-Holding a local steel stockholder owned by Fritz Theil.

In 1980 he moved into general management when he was appointed assistant managing director. In 1984 he was promoted to the top executive position at Stirnimann becoming its managing director.

The following year Grove acquired Coles and decided to consolidate the distribution into one company, forcing a choice between the Coles dealer, Robert Aebi or the Grove distributor, Stirnimann.

Wyss and Stirnimann won the day adding the Coles products to that of Grove.

Another more significant challenge came when BPR-Richier was acquired by Potain which had a company store in Switzerland.

Against all the odds, Wyss managed to persuade Potain to sell its Swiss operation to Stirnimann, which then took over the Potain distribution.

History repeated itself when Grove took over Krupp triggering another beauty contest which once again Stirnimann won. The most recent such event occurred three years ago when JLG purchased Grove’s Manlift business. Stirminann had handled the Manlift powered access account since 1979 after it was acquired by Grove.

Once again Wyss and Stirnimann was able to sell its strong sales and service capability and since 2004 has been the JLG distributor for Switzerland.
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Wayne Lawson of JLG (R) agrees the JLG distribution with Wyss in 2004

As the company grew and prospered Wyss was called on to apply his experience and management talents to other parts of ERO-Holding, becoming a main board director and then vice chairman. He has been chairman and president of Stirnimann since 1997.

Following the death of Elsa Theil, who had retained ERO-Holding after her husband passed away in 1995, the Group was broken up and in 2005. Stirnimann was sold to Burkhard Lichtner an entrepreneur from Meggen in the canton of Lucerne.

Wyss told Vertikal.net that he wanted to find successor while the crane and access markets are strong with good prospects for the immediate future.

“I will be 64 this year and do not want to be handing over to a new manager at the start of downturn. We have been lucky to find a candidate of Lorenzo Cassani’s calibre, by handing over to him now, he will be able to get to know the business and the industry during a strong period. I will also be around for a year or two as a non-executive director should he need to some historical perspective etc.”

Cassani joins Stirnimann after several years of running his own executive search business, prior to that he spent seven years working for Caterpillar in Geneva, and has held a number of general management positions in the construction equipment industry. He is fluent in German, English and French. He started with Stirnimann on January 8th .