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!!