PC Produzioni launched its first crane under its own branding, a 55t rough terrain, in 2009. The company’s roots go back much further than that though. Managing director Rudolfo Manotti explains: “Manotti Srl was my father’s business. It is a family company, founded in 1985, as a metal assembly company, focused on lifting. PC Produzioni was established in 1999 to design and build cranes for Palfinger Systems. It designs and builds small service, marine and windmill maintenance cranes.

“We started as a sub-supplier: first welding, then finishing and testing from Palfinger drawings, then Palfinger asked us to produce a 6,000kg crane for them. That was specifically aimed at the US marine and service truck sectors. Our next crane for them was aimed at windmill maintenance.

“Manotti Srl had produced frame, boom and tower for Rigo, prior to Kato buying them. When Kato bought Rigo, we continued producing chassis for them. When Kato closed Rigo, we had a choice: either stop building these components, or start producing our own cranes.”

When Rigo ceased trading, PC Produzioni brought in two of its senior staff, including Paolo Molino, who is now export manager.

Manotti continues, “In 2006, we started designing and producing cranes under our own name. The first cranes went into production at the end of 2006. And then, one minute later, the financial crisis came.

“Our first crane was a 55-tonner, in 2009. We will show an 85t rough terrain at SAIE this year. In 2011, we will show a 35t crane. Our goal this year is to sell 15 units of the 55t. We’ve sold 11 so far. We’ve already sold the launch model of the 85t crane. Our aim is to sell 6–8 units of the 85t in 2011.

“Our philosophy is to be very aggressive: a lot of Italian companies still produce 10 or 15 cranes a year, after years of manufacturing. It is not common for Italian producers to visit export markets. For us now, export is not Europe. For this sort of product, the market is not in Europe.

Molino says the trend in capacities will be upwards: “We will head towards 100t. The feedback we get from customers is to go high. A rough terrain crane is designed to be used on one site, where it can stay for years. It should be able to lift anything on site, without needing to rent all terrains.”

PC Produzioni’s history as a component supplier and crane designer, and its managers’ experience working for Rigo, give it a solid grounding for developing its own cranes. However, its continuing position as both a component supplier and crane builder does raise some interesting questions.

Manotti says, “We don’t produce the same products as we supply components for others, but it will be a question for us at SAIE: how will our component customers react? For us though, the price we were getting for components was so low, we had to take that risk.

“On our own branded cranes, we have the whole passage through the manufacturing process; from the steel plate to the finished crane. We think it is important for quality, delivery, and price.”

As well as experience, Paolo Molino brought with him a network of contacts from his days with Rigo. He says, “We could bring our experience, our sales network with us, but we have still had to go around the world, Rudolfo Manotti and I, to keep our relationships with customers.

“Our philosophy is to travel, we are investing a huge amount to be able to go and say, ‘we are here in the field’. We don’t have huge numbers of cranes, but in some ways that is good. When the customer asks for me, or for Rudolfo Manotti, we are there right away. For us it is an investment to see the customer.”

Being prepared to travel has advantages when it comes to customer service too. Molino says, “We’re working well in Africa: in Libya, Algeria, Guinea, Angola. You can’t expect to easily find a skilled technician in Angola or Ghana, but we can train. We use a simple PLC system and, on the 55t, a hydrostatic carrier. Usually, we train locally: we can then see the field conditions and how people are using the machine. In the UAE, we can train customers and distributors through our partner, Al Marwan Group, in Sharjah.”