RAVAS Group's headquarters in Zaltbommel in the Netherlands.

RAVAS, a European producer of mobile weighing scales, has expanded in the US with the establishment of a sales and assembly facility in Buffalo Grove, Illinois.

The Dutch company, which claims to produce one in every two mobile scales in Europe, says growing demand in the US is the reason for the new facility.

Tom Murphy, sales manager of RAVAS US, says the US market for mobile weighing is immature but has a huge growth potential.

"By immature, we mean that there's no US-based competitor that applies mobile weighing the way we do. In that sense, we are far ahead with a balanced product range for numerous applications," he says.

RAVAS produces scales for counterbalanced forklifts, walkie and rider pallet trucks, stackers, stock selectors and hand pallet trucks. The scales can link directly to WMS or ERP software packages via existing wireless networks and transform forklifts into platforms for gathering material flow information.

"Market analysis tells us that the potential volume of mobile weighing systems in the US amounts to over 17,000 units annually," Murphy says, adding that the company currently sells several hundred systems to North America and that the US market is two-thirds of the European market size.

For the RAVAS group, this means there's a potential volume growth of 40% in the US market. Before, the US market was served through several small dealers.

"The market demand strongly increased in the past few years and arrived at a level where it becomes necessary and logical for RAVAS to have a local presence," Murphy explains.

RAVAS USA is part of RAVAS Group and has a production facility in Zaltbommel in the Netherlands and a Chinese production facility via a joint venture in Nanjing. There are 130 employees based in Europe. The Chicago 2000m² facility employs about 40 staff. Murphy and Mathew VanHowe are currently the only full-time sales and marketing staff. The Dutch office handles business and marketing support while RAVAS owner Henri Peter van Seumeren heads the US office.