Konecranes to acquire certain assets of the container handling truck business of KION Group's Linde brand
Long-term supply agreement between Konecranes and Linde Material Handling
Both Konecranes and Linde Material Handling will continue to offer a full range of container handling trucks worldwide
Wiesbaden / Helsinki / Aschaffenburg, 18 February 2013 - The KION Group, one of the two leading global manufacturers of industrial trucks, and Konecranes, a world-leading group of Lifting Businesses(TM) today announced that Konecranes has agreed to buy certain assets of the container handling truck business of Linde Material Handling, which is wholly owned by KION Group. The two groups have also signed a long-term supply agreement and will collaborate to further increase the global competitiveness of their respective container handling truck activities. The value of the assets purchased is not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close during the 2nd quarter of 2013.

Both companies will keep reach stackers, empty container handlers and laden container handlers in their offering but after a period of time all manufacturing will take place in Konecranes factories. The assets acquired by Konecranes from Linde Material Handling include the respective product rights. In addition, Konecranes will get access to Linde Material Handling's distribution network. The collaboration improves economies of scale in R&D and manufacturing while enabling both companies to continue to offer container handling trucks to their distribution channels.

"We are happy to work together with Konecranes. This global collaboration with one of the leaders in this segment will significantly improve our container handling offerings to the customers of the Linde brand," said Theodor Maurer, member of the Executive Board of KION Group and CEO of Linde Material Handling. "We will maintain the highest standards in quality, delivery, performance and value - all standards to which our customers are accustomed."

"Our lift truck business has been a strong performer within Konecranes Group. The acquisition of certain assets of Linde Material Handling's container handling business opens wider distribution network for the combined reach stacker and empty container handler offering. We look forward to working with Linde and their distributors; together we are stronger in the market", said Hannu Rusanen, member of the Group Executive Board of Konecranes and Head of Business Area Equipment.

What happened to Luna?

Haven't seen them for a while now. Did they go under?

Ok BlackAngel

Lets have it.

I can only think of 3 Spanish Forklift Manufacturers

Tecna, Mast, and Ausa

Maybe there are more.

All must be suffering with the present state on Construction in Spain.

Who is really ready to close.

Hello Everyone
very soon I would start posting information about some of the Spaniers manufatures of rough terrain Forklifts , far as I found out not long ago one of them is almost close.

Good luck man
Remember its not the end of the world
plenty of people around the world would think we all live a charmed lifestyle and would swop places not matter how bad we like to think things are !!!!!

simple Normandy - entering consultation and thats it since last thursday. nowt else apart from we will be expected to work free overtime before long(banked hour system) to get orders out! morale is low on the shop floor , brandon & charlie are walking about like the chuckle brothers with thier knuckles dragging on the floor>>

With the recent report on FA.com what is the word from those in the know

What have Kion said to the staff ?

The point that you are making is defenatly correct Service with out doubt is the most important part of any company.

Another point now is can Merthyr be saved and made profitable the answer to this is yes. So here is the next question dose Linde want it Saving

In agreement there pal, project 13 seems to account for customers of that company in a certain region waiting days whilst engineers are faffing around sending texts to the transport office where people lose them, send you another text, and then send 'overdue lists' THIS MADNESS HAS TO STOP engineers are already so cheesed they're about to blow.

Customers have to be put first..........not endless unlucky 13 projects with out of date lists etc etc

Without customers FLT factories shut as we've seen today, the pressure is on for all of us.

All makes of trucks seem to have a 'technological trump card' of one sort or another in their favour, I have seen all sort of useful gadgets & gizmos on european & far eastern machines but I think it is all about the service company can offer an end user.

Remember the saying 'A happy ship is an efficient ship'

So managers take heed, with margins so slim you need to be efficient & stop putting more & more obstacles in everybody's way

Profit at all cost seems to be the way big business are going, give me a manager that has come through the ranks any day, they have been at grass roots and seen how a company develops and what is required to succeed, nowadays they seem to come straight from university with X amount of degrees with little knowledge of the fundamentals, they will have a model and call it something crazy like project 13, demoralise the workforce and lose a lot of good people, YOU CAN'T BUY EXPERIENCE! then blame the workforce for loosing the customer base.

I worked at LHTD for some years. Since the retirement of a certain Scotsman the factory has suffered.
Successive MD's have pretty much caused what has happened today. Taking deals at any cost, employing people with no knowledge or managerial skill, forcing people out who actually contributed to the business.
Profitability can be measured in many ways. covering costs, contribution to the overall business, full line supplier etc. all impact a factory. Bean counters really only look at one thing. Basingstoke factory closure is a case in point.
Managers by title doesn't mean they are managers by deed.
It is indeed a sad day for many people in Merthyr.

Mr friske - took the meeting today. cannot understand the comment "even in 2007 when producing 1500 353,s" merthyr still lost money? me dull? - plus other truck sales on top and no profit made? if that is the case we should have shut 15 years ago but we made millions then. even bailed out basingstoke on numerous occasions. one thought we talked about today was there are 47 managers on the telephone logs who work in a factory with 203 employees ? rest my case....

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There is a lot of people who feel the same way , they have given a lot of years service to a company and then to find out they might be out of work with in 18 month.

The meeting tomorrow might be a bit colourful i can't see Linde coming Clean on all this. They will say there is so many roomers going around and none of them are true. But KION did say that they had not sold to the Chines only for the day after to say they had


I hope for the workers at Mertyr it turns out well Its hard on the employment front in that part of the UK and it could do with out loosing more jobs. If KION are to move out then they should do a least one good thing and sell the facility to another forklift manufacture who would create employment in the area. If this was to happen there would be quite a lot of interest inside the industry in Merthyr but companies don't like to sell to there competitors especially such a modern facility with a good work force.

Dai - can i come and work for you when i,m destitute and about to be thrown out of my home, i,ll lick your feet and walk your dog everyday?? ok joking , but this affair is leaving a real bitter taste in my mouth.