Italian truck and spider lift manufacturer Socage has acquired a majority stake in fellow Italian CTE, one of its main competitors. The acquisition should boost the Socage ‘group’ revenues next year to somewhere in the region of €190 million.
(L-R) Giampaolo Piovan of CTE, Fiorenzo Flisi of Socage, Lorenzo Cipriani of CTE and Alessandro Flisi of Socage
Socage chief executive Fiorenzo Flisi said: "CTE has a strong know how in the market of truck mounted and self-propelled spider lifts, offering a solid range of products and solutions worldwide with high added value for its customers. We share the same values. CTE fits perfectly into our group.”
“We continue our strategy of strengthening our international presence in the aerial platforms market. The CTE range of products and services are highly complementary to those of Socage, allowing for broader support to customers in Italy and internationally, thanks to its own sales and distribution network, which will continue to operate independently.”
A 24m Socage 24D Speed truck mount at company HQ in Carpi, Italy
CTE’s founders Lorenzo Cipriani and Giampaolo Piovan added: "CTE has constantly grown, organically and through strategic acquisitions, significantly improving its market positioning. We have always focused on developing partnerships based on strong and stable relationships with customers and suppliers, creating a collaborative environment. The agreement with Socage is a key step in CTE strategy to expand its product range. It will also improve its production structure through industrial synergies that will significantly benefit the CTE distribution network. The same vision and goal have guided our dialogue and relationship with Socage. We greatly appreciate its proactive and customer focused approach as a groundwork for further joint growth, both in Italy and internationally."
The 24m CTE Zeta 24 truck mount
Flisi was one of the founders of Oil & Steel but sold his shares in the business to BS Private Equity in 2007, and in 2009 he acquired Socage from previous owner Fassi, in partnership with Paolo Troni. In the years since he has built Socage into a strong player in the truck mounted and more recently the spider lift markets.
Vertikal Comment
This deal is something of a surprise, and an interesting combination given that there is a fair amount of product overlap between the two manufacturers. They both produce a full line of truck mounted lifts, along with a similar selection of spider lifts, although Socage does have a strong pickup and van mounted range in addition to truck mounts up to 100 metres.
However, they have different strengths and weaknesses, and when it comes to distribution and market penetration they are generally strong in different markets. Which potentially has the makings of a good combination in terms of synergies.
How well the deal works out in practice will depends very much on how it is managed, as always. It does make sense to operate independently at the customer and distribution level, while sharing as much as possible at the back end, such as purchasing power and technology sharing etc.. One thing we have learnt over the years is never underestimate Fiorenzo Flisi.
It will be very interesting to watch how the deal pans out over the next two or three years.
PlatformFan
Unbelievable. The company which created platforms with problems bought the one that made quality its strong point. Congratulations to the founders, who after selling Effer, also sold CTE. The memories of Bertinoro, Rivoli and Rovereto are now far gone.
PlatformFan
Unbelievable. The company which created platforms with problems bought the one that made quality its strong point. Congratulations to the founders, who after selling Effer, also sold CTE. The memories of Bertinoro, Rivoli and Rovereto are now far gone.