LiuGong Europe: A Sustainable Development Path

It has been quite a time for Chinese construction equipment manufacturers to go out and do business all over the world. Some of them have achieved remarkable progress and have succeeded in making a significant footprint in new markets. Nevertheless, to sustainably compete with the industry giants, these rising stars need to be smarter and more flexible.

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LiuGong Machinery Corp., China’s premier global construction equipment manufacturer making a full line of construction equipment to meet the application needs of its customers, has found a way to maintain stability in a challenging arena. LiuGong Europe in particular has become a recognised force in the competitive European market.

With its headquarter in Almere, Netherlands, LiuGong Europe owns approximately 8000m² of facilities and yards, serving as sales & technical support hub and spare parts distribution center for the entire European region. In conjunction with its 15 dealers in over 21 countries in Europe, LiuGong can provide fast and professional services for its expanding number of European customers. Since entering the market, LiuGong Europe has adopted a series of strategies to fulfill its commitment to giving its customers the control over machine ownership, as well as ensuring its machines best meet the needs of their application.

A notable example would be financing. According to an analysis report from Wallenuus Wilhelmsen Corp. (WWL), due to the economic crisis, European credit growth has been negative since 2012, and resulted in1/3 of financing needs could not be satisfied. LiuGong, however, has taken advantage of the Chinese financing market backup, and carried out various actions which its dealers and customers can benefit from.

From the beginning of 2014, LiuGong carried out ’small loan’ business, aimed at financing difficulties for the end customers and tailored to debt cycle of 24 months or 36 months. This encouraged new customers to approach LiuGong, and by the end of the year more than €1million of sales revenue was generated as a direct result of the initiative. Subsequently, with regards to the machines’ “resale value”, LiuGong Europe introduced another new business to the market. Customers who maintain their machines from official LiuGong dealers or factories can trade LiuGong machines at a 50% price valuation after 3 years’ operation. They can either sell the machines to LiuGong or exchange for a new model. Through ‘Buy Back’ & ‘Trade In’ policies, LiuGong shows a strong confidence in the durability of its products. Meanwhile, under the guarantee from the manufacturer, European end users are more likely to get better credit from local financing companies.

As a customer focused company, LiuGong understands the needs of its end users around the world. To support its commitment, LiuGong has established a European marketing team including regional sales representatives, engineers and management staff, all focused on understanding customers’ needs and developing a platform to support the communication between market-front and LiuGong headquarters. LiuGong Europe also devotes extensive time and energy to increasing access to parts and service via a professional after-sales team, with a strong emphasis placed on the LiuGong Xtra Care Warranty programme.

The construction equipment industry has gradually developed a much wider range of practices. In Europe, LiuGong machines have contributed to many large projects, such as the EU internal Highway and Cooper mining in Bulgaria; a major demolition project in the UK; waste handling and recycling in Finland; flood prevention work in the Netherlands, and more. LiuGong is flexible in making its machines meet the most professional and comprehensive application needs.

And LiuGong is about brining convenience to its dealers, customers and partners. People only need to look at the new LiuGong Europe website to easily locate and learn information about the specific machines that take their interest. Through Electronic Parts Catalog (EPC) and Dealer Communicate System (DCS), LiuGong Europe and its dealers can always provide a quick turnaround of spare parts.

But this is far from enough for LiuGong. “We expect the technology trend to accelerate in 2015 and advances in technology will continue to drive changes in the way we run and administer our business, as well as driving change in the design and performance of the LiuGong equipment we sell,” said Howard Dale, the newly appointed Chairman of LiuGong Europe since November 2014. With his rich experience in the construction equipment industry, he has forecasted the strategy that LiuGong will follow. And the application of telematics technology in LiuGong machines in China has showed our forward-looking vision and surly a thrilling and expecting news for European market as well.

LiuGong has built a global enterprise from scratch and proven itself to be capable of tackling any challenges. With competitive products, considerable and detailed service and strong financing support, LiuGong Europe is heading down a sustainable path.

“Building a time-honoured enterprise is the historical responsibility and mission that the times endow us. This also applies to our operation in the Europe market and any other market in the world. We are committed to this market and to providing our customers the machines, service and support that they need. We have determination and confidence that we can meet the challenges here and achieve great results in this market,” said Mr. Zeng Guang’an, Chairman of LiuGong, in concluding on LiuGong’s confidence and future commitment to the European market.