Dutch hire company Riwal is going for growth in crane rental, buying 10 new all-terrains this year as part of a E10.7m ($9m) investment programme.

In September it took delivery of a 300t Liebherr LTM 1300/1, the biggest crane Riwal has ever owned.

After a decade of investing in its access equipment hire business and just renewing its crane fleet, owners Jaap and Dick Schalekamp have decided to grow the crane business. The Schalekamp brothers are particularly targeting clients in the petrochemical and process industries.

Six months ago they sold a one-third share in the business to Hovago, the Dutch equipment trading and leasing company. This has helped Riwal not only to grow the crane fleet but also to increase the average size of its cranes from 30t/40t capacity to 50t/60t.

The company now has 44 mobile cranes in its fleet with a cumulative lifting capacity of more than 2,500t.

As well as the flagship LTM 1300/1, Riwal has also bought this year: two Liebherr LTM 1060/2s and two LTM 1080/1s; a Grove GMK 5180 and a GMK 3050; and two Demag AC 40-1s.

A second LTM 1060/2 and another LTM 1080/1 are scheduled for delivery by the end of the year.

Riwal has also diversified into truck-mounted, tower cranes. In the summer it took delivery of a Peiner ABK 42-80, with a 28m tower, 42m jib and maximum lifting capacity of 6t. Three units of Liebherr’s new 8t-capacity MK-80 truck-mounted tower will be delivered in the next three months.

Riwal is also the first Dutch customer in line for Liebherr’s new 200t AT, the LTM 1200 which is being launched at the Bauma show next April. Riwal will take delivery of it after Bauma. By then, Riwal’s fleet will comprise 50 cranes, with an average age of just over three years and a cumulative lifting capacity of 3,000t.

Riwal’s biggest business is access equipment hire. It is a distributor for JLG and has nearly 2,000 aerial work platforms in its rental fleet, making it the Dutch market leader, the company says.

Riwal was established in 1968 as Richards & Wallington International. The Dutch operation, with its head office in Dordrecht, was bought by the Schalekamps in 1991.