French tower crane manufacturer Potain is targeting the People’s Republic of China, taking full ownership of its manufacturing joint venture there and developing a distribution network.
In April Potain bought out the 32% stake of its local partner, Group Linhong of Jiangsu, in Potain China Construction Machinery.
The company now has 325 employees after a headcount reduction of about 300, plus a team of expatriates. It has four regional offices – in Shanghai, Beijing, Lanzhou and Guangzhou – which provide sales, marketing and service support to about 30 dealers across various provinces. Eric Etchart, president of Potain China Construction Machinery, said more dealers would be added next year.
Etchart paid tribute to the crucial support the company had received from the Zhangjiagang municipality, which is in Jiangsu Province, about 250km from Shanghai.
“Support of the local government is a key success factor in China and Potain is lucky to have spotted this municipality for its investment,” said Etchart. “It is without doubt one of the best cities to be selected for any foreign investment.” Etchart said that the company was “now starting out a new investment program in our factory in Zhangjiagang to drastically improve the quality of the cranes produced in this factory in line with Potain’s high standard of quality.
“Sales have started to improve gradually thanks to the set up of a new distribution network among the various provinces. It is yet to be completed, but the initial result is very encouraging. For example, Potain Zhangjiagang will ship more than 20 units in Shaanxi province this year.” Potain is producing a complete range of tower cranes in Zhangjiagang from 40tm up to 300tm, said Etchart. The majority of the mechanisms are sourced from the newly modernised La Clayette factory in France.
Etchart said that Potain would produce more than 100 tower cranes next year for the Chinese market.
