Linde Material Handling wants to grow its Russian sales and service team.

Linde Material Handling has obtained approval from Russian antitrust authorities to take over the Russian business of its former dealer Liftec (Forkliftaction.com News #534).

"We are delighted to get official approval and are now looking forward to starting the new year with our own sales and service organisation," says Linde Material Handling's regional head of eastern and southeastern Europe, Jens Menneke.

Before the start of 2012, Liftec's Eric Baudouin officially handed over Liftec assets to Linde Material Handling CEO Theodor Maurer and his management team. Sergei Markin, the new managing director of Linde Material Handling Russia, and Menneke were present at the ceremony.

"We can see real growth potential for Linde, which we hope to exploit by introducing products and services that are specially tailored to the needs of these markets," Menneke says.

Linde Material Handling aims to grow its sales and service team over the next few years to provide better customer support. According to Linde statistics, Russia is Europe's fifth largest forklift market with more than 19,000 new trucks sold in the first 10 months of 2011.

In addition to its Russian operations, LMH plans to take over Liftec's Ukrainian and Kazakh business as part of its efforts to expand its sales and service network into the former CIS states.

"None of our competitors can boast such a wide product range," Markin says. "A further range of special service and financing options should in future encourage even more customers to choose Linde products."

Baudouin says: "We have no doubt that Liftec's highly qualified team of specialists, combined with Linde Material Handling's appetite for growth, will bring value to our customers, to the market and to Kion shareholders. Linde Material Handling will take this organisation to the next level as they did very successfully after taking over Liftec's business in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia back in 2002."