Arcomet president Dirk Theyskens, second from left, applauds his father and Arcomet founder Karel, third from right, on stage at Arcomet’s 50th birthday party. The bash drew hundreds of people from the European crane industry.
“Our core business is rental,” said president Dirk Theyskens at a December press conference.
“We produced a quality product, but their resale value was a problem. We sell them in Belgium, France and Germany, but they are not a global product. Potain is our major brand in the future,” Theyskens said.
The company has an exclusive sales distribution deal with Potain in the UK and Ireland.
Theyskens says the company, which made its first self-erector in 1968, now makes about 80 telescoping lattice-boom-section self-erectors per year.
It will phase out the 42m and 45m models at the end of 2007, and the T33 in the beginning of 2008. Arcomet will replace these cranes with Potain Igo and larger GTMR self-erectors, particularly Potain’s new Igo T70, to be launched at Bauma, which will fit in between the 50tm-class Igo 50 and 56tm-class HDT 80.
“The HDT 80 has a lot of tower that is not always required, and it is heavy to transport. I am excited about the Igo T70.”
He said that Arcomet’s strategy over the next few years is to convince tower crane owners to sell their fleets to Arcomet.
“We are fighting a price war. Normally if a buyer needs a crane, he gets five or six quotes from regional suppliers. It’s only about price, and delivery times are an issue. Our plan is to do framework agreements,” he said, in which the customer outsources its lifting to Arcomet.
The company now has 1,500 cranes spread over 18 operations, 65% top-slewers, with a total value of Eur175m, he said. Theyskens forecasts 20% growth in 2007 to a sales revenue of more than Eur150m.
Left to right: Steve Barnett, Manitowoc sales and operations UK managing director, Fergal Bent, joint-venture partner in Arcomet Ireland, Dirk Theyskens, president of Arcomet, and Paul Phillips, managing directcor of Arcomet Sales UK
The company has signed a joint venture with Fergal Bent to sell new Potain cranes in Ireland. The company is planning to develop rental operations in four regions of the country, including Northern Ireland. “Things have changed dramatically in Northern Ireland in the last five years,” Bent said, and the two markets are closely integrated.
Bent estimates that the country’s five million residents could swell to eight million by 2020, driving construction of not only low-rise housing but also, for the first time in Dublin, large tower blocks. With the population pressures have come easings of planning regulations in Ireland’s capital. “Now, 20, even 40-storey buildings are being discussed,” Bent said. The company is planning to open a new location in County Meath, 20km (12mi) from Dublin, with a Eur65,000 stockholding of spare parts.
Bent estimates that there are about 500 top-slewing cranes in the country, and about 300 self-erectors, mostly less than three years old. The increasing popularity of precast concrete sections relative to more traditional bricks and mortar has driven an increase in crane size – according to Bent the average crane size has doubled in the last five years.
In Ireland, top-slewers are to be rented nationally, and self-erectors through regional rental agreements.
In the UK, Airtek boss Colin Hutchinson, who pioneered Arcomet self-erectors in the UK through a 50:50 joint venture, is taking a step back from the business and has appointed a new sales manager. The company is also dividing up the rental market into regions, each with its own 
sub-agency agreements.
In 2007, Arcomet is planning to add a southern Italian crane rental firm to its 51% owned Milan-based crane rental company Eurogru, and will combine the two fleets. Theyskens says that this combined company will have 200 cranes by the latter part of 2007. Here especially the company is planning to increase its outsourcing. “In five or ten years Italy will be a big rental market,” he said.
It is also planning to expand its French presence – currently in southern cities of Lyon, Toulon, and Montpelier – into Paris.
Next door, Germany is restoring to its pre-1995 levels, Theyskens said. The company is increasing the size of its German inventory by 17% to 360 cranes by the end of 2007.
US subsidiary P&J Arcomet will expand into southern US states with a new depot in Houston opening in February 2007.
Theyskens hinted that in early 2007 Arcomet would announce new rental joint ventures in the Middle East and the Far East.
Arcomet is selling off the largest cranes in the fleet, 500tm and 600tm models, which have low utilisation rates and demand, he said. “The top end of the market is not interesting for us,” he said.
Arcomet buys 65% from Potain and 35% from Comedil – a policy that is resulting in 230 new Potains and between 80 and 90 Comedils in 2007.
