Frans van Seumeren wishes it to be known that his company is now called just Mammoet, not Van Seumeren, not Mammoet Van Seumeren, not Van Seumeren Mammoet.
Mammoet and Van Seumeren were arch rivals in the world of heavy lifting until in May 2000 Van Seumeren, headed by Frans van Seumeren, agreed to pay Euro 111m to take over Mammoet.
The decision was soon taken that the merged company would be called Mammoet, the main operating division of a holding company called Van Seumeren Group. This was partly because Frans thought Mammoet to be the stronger international brand and partly to make employees of the former Mammoet feel more comfortable with the takeover.
In the early days of the merger the names Mammoet Van Seumeren and Van Seumeren Mammoet were often used, but the intention was that the name Van Seumeren would be dropped from the branding of the operating company. This is not so easy to achieve when the company is so closely associated with the various van Seumeren family members.
Both Friedrich Bär, managing director of Liebherr-Werk Ehingen and Paul Burali-Forti, Manitowoc’s European sales manager both made the mistake – more than once – of announcing at separate crane handover ceremonies of referring to Van Seumeren or Mammoet Van Seumeren. “It’s Mammoet,” Frans kept having to interrupt to remind them. “The name of the company is Mammoet.” But if even the major crane suppliers that are so keen to court Mammoet and win its business cannot remember what the company is called, what hope is there for the rest of us?
