22.10.2007

Liebherr appoints UK Rental head

Liebherr-Rental, the new UK rental company for Liebherr specialist earthmoving and materials handling equipment has appointed Paul Clark general manager – managing director designate. He joined the company on 1st October.

Clark joins Liebherr from Demarec UK where he was general manager. He is a member of the Institute of Quarrying and the Chartered Institute of Waste Management.
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Paul Clark

Clark’s arrival coincides with establishement of Liebherr-Rental’s headquarters, at Liebherr GB’s Biggleswade facilities. The official launch of the rental business is scheduled for the beginning of 2008.

In the UK Liebherr Rental will be dedicated to the provision of specialist earthmoving equipment not currently purchased by local plant hirers and the companys’ new telescopic handler product line.

Liebherr is very emphatic that it has no intetnion of competing with any of its customers it has also pledged that it will not become involved in the crane rental business, tower or mobile, under any circumstances.

One of its key aims is to introduce a number of its products to the UK market that are not currently available because they are not offered by the UK rental industry.

Vertikal Comment

Liebherr has a number of products that UK rental company’s are simply not interested in, either becuase they do not see a market for them or they are to expensive in comparison to the offerings from locally based competitors.

The net effect of this is to block Liebherr from the market as very few UK conmpanies buy their own equipment. Liebherr feels that it if end users were given the opportunity to use its particular machines they will appreicate the benefits and perhaps even be prepared to pay a premium rate for them?

The same can be said of its telehandler range, you can be sure that the Liebherr machines will not be cheap and few companies in the UK will be prepared to switch from JCB, Merlo and Manitou to Liebherr at this stage. The Liebherr Rental operation will help the company at least establish a foothold for these machines.

With some of the more specialist equipment the company might even serve as a wholesale rental supplier to rental companies which feel that they cannot justify the investment in such equipment themselves.

The net aim of course is to sell more Liebherr machines in the UK, both interms of total units and a wider range of equiqment. It will inevitably thow up a wide number of opportunities and could result in stronger relationships with rental companies rather than upsetting them.