05.04.2004

Van de Weghe snaps up 16 Groves

The Belgian rental company, Van de Weghe, has placed an order for 16 GMK Grove All Terrain cranes. with Grove dealer for Belgium, BLE.

Ranging from 35 to 100 tonnes capacity, and at an estimated value of between €5 and €6 million, the order includes six, two axle, 35 tonne GMK 2035s, seven of Grove's new high spec, three axle, 55 tonne GMK 3055s, seen for the first time at last week's bauma exhibition in Munich, and three, five axle, 100 tonne GMK 5100s. The order comes just three weeks after Van de Weghe took delivery of a 450 tonne Grove seven axle GMK 7450s.
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Van de Weghe president, Roger Van de Weghe, (centre left).

The cranes will be distributed among the company's six locations across Belgium over the coming weeks and take the company's mobile crane rental fleet, which has an average age of just five years according to Dimitri Rombouts, director of the Van de Weghe group and nephew of its president, Roger Van de Weghe, to around 90 units, 80 percent of which are Grove.

In an interesting twist at Bauma, Van de Wheghe's access division was thrown into some uncertainty last week by the Manitowoc Crane Group's announcement that it had sold its Manlift division to JLG. Van de Weghe is the Manlift distributor for Belgium and this announcement leaves them wondering if they will retain the Manlift account or loose it to JLG's distribution chain.

The Van de Weghe business covers crane and access equipment rental along with heavy transport and access sales. The company is based on the south side of Antwerp.