Effer 'conquers recession'

Giancarlo Monti, the chairman of Italian loader crane manufacturer Effer Holding, has told his board of directors that Effer 'has brilliantly overcome the recession' and attributed this to the company's new product development programme.

Monti said that results for 2003 would show a 2% increase in knuckleboom crane sales on 2002, which itself was 4% up on 2001.

Monti said that the general trend for the industry in 2003 was a fall in sales of between 10% and 20%.

An increase in Effer sales was particularly noticed in classes between 10tm and 50tm. This was attributed to the launch in the second half of 2002 of six new models in the 'Octopus' range, ranging from 15tm to 50tm (models 155, 165, 310, 325, 500, 550). Sales outstripped forecasts, the Monti said.

In October 2003, at the SAIE exhibition in Bologna, another four new models (750, 850, 1350, 1750) were launched.

In total, Effer has launched 10 'totally new' models in the past 18 months, involving an entirely new design of the structure as well as of the hydraulics and electronics (including the DMU-X Can-Bus, an electronic load limiter. A further three more crane models are expected to be launched in 2004.

The success of the last two years and optimistic forecasts for 2004 has encouraged Effer's management to invest in a plant modernisation programme. Two years after the opening of Taranto plant, which employs 130 workers in a covered area of 10,500sq.m, a new factory with a surface of 5.000sq.m is being built near Bologna, in Miner bio, where Effer already has two other plants. Miner bio 3, as it is called, is designed around a completely new automatic internal logistic system, where the cranes will be handled on computer-controlled magnetic tracks, to minimise handling requirements.

The meeting of the board of directors also approved a merger between Effer Holding SpA, Effer SpA and Hydrom Srl, with effect from 1 January 2004.