Dirk Luyten at the HHIE stand in Manutention 2008.

Hyundai Heavy Industries Europe (HHIE) recorded an 18.5% rise in turnover in 2007, from EUR230 million (USD359.8 million) in 2006 to EUR280 million (USD438 million).

In 2007, HHIE sold 3,200 construction machines compared to 2,700 in 2006, while 1,600 materials handling machines were sold, compared to 1,500 in 2006.

HHIE's turnover has grown significantly over the past five years. In 2003, the company's turnover was EUR89 million (USD139.2 million). Turnover for 2007 is 215% higher than in 2003.

Dirk Luyten, HHIE's European sales manager for materials handling, tells Forkliftaction.com News that the key to its success is "respect for the ground rules".

"Offer the right product at the right price at the right place and then promote it well. That's the recipe for a good start," he says.

Part of that has been a focus on proximity to markets. "Enlarging the geographical coverage of our dealer network probably created the largest portion of the growth we experienced over the past few years," Luyten says.

He adds that HHIE is now focusing on improving its after-sales support and parts delivery service.

Last September, HHIE established its first subsidiary, HHIE-France, to establish its presence in what Luyten calls its "priority target" market.

"HHIE-France is our foothold in France for our construction equipment and materials handling dealer network," Luyten says. "We are still working on the ground rules there, looking for more quality dealers to ensure complete geographical coverage."

At Manutention 2008 in Paris, HHIE was looking to sign up French materials handling equipment dealers. HHIE says it is happy with its construction equipment dealer network in France and HHIE-France is expected to improve communication and boost loyalty among the dealers. The new subsidiary will also co-ordinate the materials handling equipment dealer network.

To further support its 115 European dealers' technicians and sales representatives, HHIE opened a new training centre in Geel, Belgium last December.

Jan Coemans, HHIE's marketing engineer, says the training centre, located about 5km from the company's headquarters, has traditional classrooms, parts assembly rooms and rooms with cross-sections of parts and stripped-down machines. HHIE has joined forces with De Coninck Management & Opleidingen to offer machine operator training courses at the new training centre.

HHIE expanded the "Dash 7" range of forklifts in September 2007 with four "D-7" 2- to 3.3-tonne diesel forklifts and six "L-7" 1.5- to 3-tonne LPG forklifts (Forkliftaction.com News #328).

It introduced six new "Dash 7" forklift models, the first Hyundai forklifts with AC controllers, at Manutention, Paris, from 11-14 March(Forkliftaction.com News #347). At CeMAT 2008 in May, Hyundai will showcase more of its AC range of forklifts including its first 5 tonne electric forklift.