Giovanni Scarlini, md of Effer parent Sol. Ge.

Part of the CTE group that also makes aerial work platforms and construction hoists, Sol. Ge. ((an abbreviation of Sollevamenti Gestione – Lifting Management), has also made a bid for the Bizzocchi aerial work platform business that is expected to be completed by the end of the year. In the nine months of 2006, group turnover was Eur 95, up about 30% year-on-year.

In the company’s first fiscal year with Effer, it put the company in the black, with about Eur 3m in revenue. In the first half of 2006, total revenue had already reached Eur 20m, and the company is hopng to bring in a total of Eur 44m by the end of the year. The company expects to deliver 1,450 cranes this year, and 2,100 next year.

“We have a very good product recognition in the medium-high range of cranes,” managing director Giovanni Scarlini tells Cranes Today. “We will become more aggressive in the medium and small-end in about a year and a half. But I don’t like selling on prices,” he says. At Bauma the company is planning to show a mid-range 40tm crane at Bauma. Beneath this is the medium-low range, and over 50tm is the high-end.

He says that the high-end loader crane market remains strong – Effer expects to sell five or six next year. Big loaders are useful for machinery moving in low factories because of their outreach. Big loaders with long jibs that can reach over buildings and other obstacles are a key product for the North American market, he says. “We are using 1300 Weldox in our crane booms, extensions and jibs. Nobody else is using it in cranes.”

The company is planning to integrate Effer and Bizzocchi factories – Effer alone has three in Bologna. “We are considering bringing lean to the total company. When you are trying to transform a company to lean, you need good manufacturing industrialisation and standardisation. If you make only the line lean, you will never get all of the results. You need products that are designed to be lean. It is a cultural change that will take a couple of years. Their financial troubles last year didn’t help. Industrialisation includes design and manufacturing using the best current technology, such as welding robots and forged parts instead of sheet metal. Standardisation is about common parts.”

It is also improving the Effer dealer network. “It does need to be improved, and made more aggressive,” says Scarlini tk. “When you are talking about products to be sold, there needs to be a real focus on customers’ needs, particularly in aftersales and spare parts. You can’t only do the product – you have to do everything. This is a typical mentality of small companies with turnovers of Eur 50m-100m,” he says to Cranes Today. The company also needs to shorten the supply chain between manufacturer and end-user, he says.

At SAIE, Effer showed a new 155-165 with a jib that extends at a negative angle, a strengthened 54.5tm 585 with jib that extends at a negative angle, and the tk tm 2750 – what it claims to be the most powerful articulated cranes on a truck.