HD CRANES of the Netherlands is taking over Manitowoc Europe, one of the last remaining company-owned distribution and service outlet that Manitowoc had. The move follows HD signing up as a Manitowoc dealer.
The Dutch company was previously Kobelco’s crawler crane dealer for the Benelux countries and the UK, a role it took in March 1998.
In contrast to Manitowoc’s new strategy, Kobelco has now switched to selling direct. It has recruited Andrew Brown from R-B International as sales manager for the UK and Ireland. Brown is based in Ipswich. Kevin Townsend joined from Hewden Stuart in April as service manager.
Kobelco’s cooperation with Grove Europe on promoting the RK 200 city crane in the UK has also been stopped – “although new RK 200 city cranes can still be bought from Grove if this is the customer’s preference,” Kobelco said.
Manitowoc Europe will continue to be run from Northampton in the UK, but also now from HD’s home of Moerdijk in the Netherlands.
Manitowoc sales and marketing vice president Larry Weyers refused to disclose details of the deal as the sale to HD had not been finalised.
Manitowoc’s only remaining company owned distribution outlet now is North Central Cranes & Excavator Sales, in Illinois, USA.
