Kobelco Cranes Opens German Representative Office to Strengthen Large Crawler Crane Business

Kobelco Cranes announced the establishment of a representative office in Frankfurt, Germany, aimed at strengthening its large crawler crane business. The announcement was made on July 10th at an opening ceremony attended by Akihiko Tsukamoto, President of Kobelco Cranes, and other dignitaries at the Westin Grand Frankfurt Hotel.

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President Tsukamoto stated, “In order to develop and grow our overall crawler crane business by 2020, the 300-ton class and above is a priority. How quickly and smoothly we can introduce this line is the key. The Frankfurt office will improve our market research and analysis through worldwide“Voice of the Customer” contact from a base in Germany which we consider the center of the large size crawler crane market, and where we can expect to establish ties with market-leading parts suppliers and outstanding engineering consulting firms.”

Kobelco Cranes, in developing its medium-term plan in March 2014, has set the further growth of its large crawler crane business as one of the priorities, and the establishment of the Frankfurt office will be one of those concrete measures to achieve the goal. We start our operation initially with three staff but eventually expand it to almost double.

In fiscal year 2015, Kobelco Cranes has begun to take steps for the implementation of its long-term product strategy and the strengthening of the organization for its large crawler crane business. The tangible execution plan will be reflected in the next mid-term plan starting in April 2016. The plan calls for the business to support a growth in total sales in the future of approximately 30%.

Furthermore, the Kobelco subsidiary Kobelco Cranes Europe Ltd., with locations in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands, will continue selling and servicing the Kobelco crawler crane lineup from small to very large sizes for their customers throughout Europe.