INTERVIEW
12
access
INTERNATIONAL
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2014
“We have never been known for producing
these machines to rental companies. We
decided five years ago to focus on rental and
develop machines for the rental business.” It
started with the light duty line for 3.5 tonne
chassis, from 9 to 24 m.The company has
just produced a prototype of the biggest in
that line, the 24 m – more information about
that will follow soon. Next will be a 22 m
machine, followed by a final model in due
course.
New trucks
The series will be completed in the next
two years – specifically on 3.5 tonne chassis.
“That’s a huge market in rental business. “We
are already quite strong in the medium and
heavy areas on chassis from 5 tonne and up
but they are mainly going to end users; there
are few rental companies buying in that area.
“We believe we can take a good market
share in the 3.5 tonne area, except Italy, which
is a very difficult country because it’s where
you have most competitors, so it’s probably
not where our focus will be as we have a very
good distributor base elsewhere.
“My dream is that rental will be 40-50%
of the business,” Says Mr Torp. Currently,
including France and the UK, rental stands at
about 10% of company sales.
But we are very strong in UK, Ireland,
France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark,
Sweden, so we will take advantage of that
strong distributor network, because they
already sell equipment to rental sometimes
through a second line of machines from one of
our colleagues, like Ruthmann.”The company
has a strong relationship with Ruthmann - the
German truck mount manufacturer.
While the company will continue to
concentrate on innovations for van mounts,
Mr Per does not expect the van mount area
of the business to grow a great deal. “We will
be satisfied if we can keep it at the same level
for the next few years. We spend a lot of time
developing our vans but at the same time we
have a strong focus in the 3.5 tonne chassis
market and bigger chassis.”
The strength of the van mount market
chops and changes from country to country
and is also affected by other factors, such as
the loss of the 7.5 tonne Mercedes Vario,
which is not being produced anymore.The
solution is to use a 7.5 ton chassis with a
TIME Smartbox (van box).The benefit is
that with the payload left over, you have a
workshop in which you can stand inside and
upright.”
Although, it should be remembered the 7.5
is a relatively small part of the overall market.
“So now there are the 3.5 tonne or 5 tonne
vans.That’s okay, but if you go back to our
history in Europe, there have been years where
80-90% of what we sold were vans - that’s
down now to about 50-60% across Europe.
The vans business has not gone down; we
have the same or more sales, but we have been
growing in the chassis and pick-ups.”
“The 3.5 tonne truck segment is still a huge
market for developing new machines and a big
market for the future.
But Mr Torp does not think we will see
taller machines than today, “In fact I think we
will go down a bit.The 3.5 tonne gets heavier,
because every time you go from one emission
regulation to the next you add 30 to 60 kg,
and as a manufacturer we have to take that
weight out of our equipment. You can’t keep
taking 60 kg off without also having to reduce
the working height.”
But it’s not just truck mounts that will
tickle the interest of rental companies,
according to Mr Torp pick-ups will be the
next big thing.
Picking up
The company produced its first pick-up about
four years ago to test the market.Then last
year another big step was made with the
Versalift Quick Shift system, introduced at
bauma last year.
Mr Torp had been approached by Volkswagen
to produce a lift for its Amarok pick-up. At
the same time he had been drawing up a
new idea for the quick shift system which
allows multiple attachments for different
applications.
“Overall the rental business is looking for
pick-ups with different sizes of lifts – I see
a lot of opportunities for the future and to
develop new products.”
So far, there are three models with booms
designed specifically for pick-ups: 9, 11 and
14 m telescopic booms, “I don’t believe that
on the telescopic side we will have taller
machines than 14 m, but there will be other
kinds of telescopic boom pick-ups in the
future.”
The interest in the pick-up will be global,
says Mr Torp. “It’s a matter of time for all
countries; I don’t see any country that won’t be
interested, because it’s a small compact 4 x 4,
as they are mostly sold - so you can use them
on rough terrain, for municipalities, rental
companies, or in the backyard, parks and
roads. Pick-ups could become as much as 20%
of our business.”
The company has just opened a new 7000
square metre facility new facility. “Until
a few years ago our main production and
engineering was done in Wheco, Texas at
our main factory, but we would extend the
engineering we already had here in Wheco
for the European market and build prototypes
that would then go into production in
Wheco.”
A few montnts ago the company also
launched the VO-455E80 double lift elevator.
Its assembly replaces a traditional pedestal
and provides a 25 ft (7.6 m) or 33 ft (10 m)
vertical lift. It consists of two arms and is
actuated by two double acting cylinders.
Each arm can be actuated individually,
allowing additional reach over the front or rear
of the vehicle; 25 ft (3.6 m) or 33 ft (4.8 m).
Despite all these areas of growth Mr Torp
remains focused on Versalift’s traditional van
mount market. “We never want to loose the
end user utilities customer for van munts;
that’s a core market.”
AI
The VDT 170 F
with the TIME
smartbox, shown
here as a complete
workstation.
A VT 140 F Sprinter
