Having herd that the Kone Cranes take over of Linde HTD has not gone to plan and they are looking to get out of the deal , Have kone cranes really lost the plot here in the UK. by getting rid of well respected dealer with lost of customer satisfaction and loyalty and moving to a company who close links with Chinese manufactures will make you wonder on how long it will be before you might see a Chinese version of a large truck on the market.
Kone Cranes market share is not what they wanted when they entered into the Linde agreement and Kone don't seem to know how to react to either NACCO who are the market leader in forklifts over 10,000kg and Kalmar who are the leader in container handling equipment. Sany are now a real threat to the market and Kone trying to sell a second hand Sany truck did not get the desired effect. So how long will Kone stay in this market for my bet is they will be out with in two years
Showing items 1 - 7 of 7 results.
Looking at the Merhtyr plant issue i really believe that Merthyr would still be working today if the still made the 396 6,000kg - 8,000kg truck their. Its a real shame that the plant closed in the way it did i still believe there is a future for the plant with the right product and management. Some of the Linde management who were there understood the business but they were stoped before they could sort the plant out by the closer
just to put my point over , us welders and fitters at the Merthyr plant were highly skilled and took a lot of pride in our work. the Merthyr plant allways made a good profit - we only started losing money when the Kion group took over with new clueless managers put in charge of the factory!!
Who runs Konecranes Lift Trucks and Container Handling Division? Have there been any management changes? Has anyone seen a Linde built by Kone? Are they successful outside of the UK? Has the Linde acquisition taken their eye off the ball or was the Linde deal a smoke screen to cover problems?
These are interesting questions and could give some understanding as to their decline in the UK or can this be attributed to the dealer?
We know that Kone have lost significant market share in the UK and Kalmar have turned around their losses at the expense of Kone. So change the dealer and put the blame on the old one, that sounds like a coorporate text book plan. Our industry is littered with these type of decisions but it is normally lower management and engineers who are the scapegoats rather than dealers.
I agree that Kone are in trouble as they still have a huge overhead with manufacturing in Sweden whilst their Kalmar neighbours have been smart enough to move most production to Poland giving them a huge advantage over Kone. With the Chinese entering the market and Kalmar continuing to take all Kone business with similar products but much more competitive pricing where can Kone go?
So why appoint a Kalmar dealer who could only move single figure units per year?
Who is running Kone, they might be following that Tesco CEO soon!!!! However I am sure they will have a bigger garden than mine!!
i totally agree , its suicide on the part of Kone Cranes Impact could not sell kalmar a very good truck in the market.
Kone Cranes will b gone with in two years in the UK
Agreed, Konecranes have enjoyed the rewards of the original owners who understood marketing, engineering and customer satisfaction. The new regime are only interested in bottom line profit and continue to hike prices and reduce quality.
Kalmar have almost eliminated them from the UK market, which makes the Impact decision even more confusing, if they could not sell Kalmar machines they will have little chance of moving the hugely expensive Kone machines.
Who would move from Coopers to Impact in this sector? No one in the UK can understand or see any sense in this which just confirms that manufacturers only listen to the promises of volume without understanding the market.
With Coopers so well connected and highly regarded in this sector this could really backfire on Kone if someone else partners Coopers?
I agree Kone took over Linde to get into china yet linde still supply China from Xaimen, also if your own truck was very good why buy a competitor who are losing money this deal did not make sense from the start because Kone have not used any of the Linde tech. The only thing Kone have done really in the past 12 month is up grade the cab with fly by wire hydraulics and a bit better canbus system. Sany will over take them in Europe with in two years the have a good set up in Germany and a good person running it.
Kone have not made the in roads to the market they would of liked they are around five in the forklift market behind Hyster kalmar, taylor and terex. and the same again in the container handling market behind Kalmar , terex, Sany ( because of the Chines market) and Hyster. Now they have took a step backwards in the UK how long will they still be here i have a good bet it won't be two years
Again this leaves the big question of who will be around in a couple of years time both in the big truck market and the small truck market. Competition is hotting up and the larger companies are becoming larger and the smaller companies might even disappear. KION are investing in their other brands in Eastern Europe to be able to come into the European market from these plants. Will we see other companies do the same and the market become more condense in the future
It does look like konecranes have lost the plot.
The linde deal is odd. They have taken a competitor out but the benefit is everyone elses. I bet kalmar and hyster cannot believe their good luck at this stupidity. It is known that merthyr was a loss-making plant and kone pay linde for a loss making business. Shouldnt linde pay kone for taking the liability. I bet linde can't believe their luck either.
I think the clue is in the name. Konecranes are crane people who are playing at the fork lift industry and dont understand the rules of the game
Forkliftaction.com accepts no responsibility for forum content and requires forum participants to adhere to the rules. Click here for more information.