In 1995 Tomáš Torner, the current owner, bought the company from them and continued crane trading not only to the Czech Republic, but also with other countries in the EMEA region.
We were not a hire firm at that time; it was a pure trading company until 1997, when we got the first service requests and we started to cooperate with a service centre to repair Czech-made CKD cranes. This step increased our level of sales competence.
In 2003 Torner contacted Deutsche Grove to see if they would be interested in having us as a distributor. The agreement was signed in 2004, since then we have been the exclusive dealer of Grove cranes for the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We can sell new Grove cranes and original spare parts, and also repair Grove cranes. Deutsche Grove were soon renamed as Manitowoc Crane Group Germany, and we got access to a new product line — Manitowoc crawlers.
As Manitowoc Cranes’ elite dealer we are also a contact point for Manitowoc Crane Care. In our territory we have three crane service centers, which are authorised to do repairs on Grove cranes. Already about 20 technicians from those centres have been trained at a Manitowoc Crane Care training centre in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. They have completed all requested courses there.
In 2007 we contacted AB Kranlyft, the European Maeda minicranes importer, with a request to be the Maeda minicranes dealer in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. AB Kranlyft and our company signed the dealer agreement at the end of 2007. Since then we sell new Maeda minicranes, original spare parts and also organise repairs of Maeda minicranes.
In 2008, we began to rent our cranes out as a reaction to the impact of the financial crisis in our territory. It happened almost overnight that the cranes purchased for clients stayed in our stock. All those cranes purchased by our company were leased and we had to pay this leasing back. It was just a logical decision to start a rental business to be able to generate some income. We had to employ some crane operators and dispatchers, and had to learn quite a different type of business than what we were used to before.
We now have 10 units for hire with lift capacities from 2-100t. This includes Grove GMK 2035, GMK 3050, GMK 4075, and GMK 4100-L mobile cranes. Then we also have truck cranes — CKD AD20s (20t) and CKD AD28s (28t) — as well as the Maeda MC285CRME, which is the most requested minicrane.
The Grove and Maeda cranes in our fleet are operated not only as rental units, but are used to support sales in our region too. Those clients interested in purchasing Grove or Maeda cranes can test our cranes; borrow it and get the general impression of a Grove crane’s systems, such as Megatrak suspension, ECOS control and EKS LMI and the Twin-Lock boom extension system.
The type of crane most requested in our market territory is the Grove GMK mobile crane. Other types such RTs, industrials or crawlers are only marginal here. There are still a significant number of old Czech made truck-mounted CKD cranes with capacities of 8-28t in use in our territory. To support sales of new cranes we often buy back these old CKD cranes, renovate them and have them ready for another sale or rental.
To sell any new crane is very difficult here recently. The financial crisis has had a very strong impact on our business. Our clients are seeking the cheapest possible solution, which means they go for used cranes. Then our trained service centre staff get more jobs to do, as the quality of used cranes is poor usually.
Our business is the sale, servicing and rental of Grove and Maeda cranes. We love the products we sell and we are on a friendly basis with all our clients and business partners.
František Chalupa, project manager, Pragotechnik