Christer Dijner, former president of AB Kranlyft, master distributor for Kato Cranes in Europe, is to lead a buyout of his old company from new owner Metso Group.
The transaction will take effect on 2 September 2002 and includes all of Kranlyft’s operations and assets, including Kato Cranes (UK), but not any stock of cranes remaining unsold.
The UK operation will be renamed Kato Parts & Service Ltd to reflect the fact that it is more in the aftermarket and parts business these days than selling new Kato cranes, said Dijner. However, he indicated that this name change might be a first step towards dropping the Kato name next year in favour of one that more accurately reflects the diversity of the company’s product offering. Sweden-based Kranlyft and its Kato (UK) operation represent Maeda of Japan and Marchetti of Italy, as well as the once-mighty Kato. Since taking on the Maeda account two years ago Kranlyft has sold more than 40 Maeda mini crawler cranes, including 10 to the Hertz rental business in Scandinavia.
‘When we re-start,’ Dijner said, ‘our main concentration will be the parts and after-market business of Kato and new sales of Maeda.’ Kranlyft will also continue to represent Marchetti, Dijner said.
New Kranlyft plans to hold discussions with the two US manufacturers that it has also been representing, namely Shuttlelift (industrial cranes) and Riggers Manufacturing (hydraulic lifting gantries). Neither of these accounts had generated much business for Kranlyft, Dijner said, and so needed to be reassessed.
In the UK only, Kato (UK) had represented the Dutch manufacturer of truck-mounted tower cranes Spierings for the past year or two but this agreement has now ended.
Kranlyft, based in Gothenburg, Sweden, has had many ownership changes over the years. In the later 1980s it was privately owned by a group that included Dijner. It was then sold to the Componenta Group which in turn joined Svedala Industri. Kranlyft was always a non core activity for Svedala but remained under its ownership because it performed satisfactorily. When Metso Corporation took over Svedala in September 2001 and merged it with its rock and mineral processing technology division, Kranlyft’s future was once again in jeopardy. Dijner, who joined the company in 1977, departed in December 2001.
