HKL establishes rental business in Austria

German rental company HKL Baumaschinen is moving into Austria with the first of three new sites to open at the start of June. The first location, at Weiner Neudorf, close to Vienna in the east of the country, will also be HKL's Austrian headquarters.

HKL said the plan in the medium term was to open depots in all cities and regions of the the country.

Managing director of the business is Burkhard Winterfeld, an experienced construction equipment and rental manager in Austria and a former managing director of Austrian sales and rental company M.R. Drott GmbH & Co.

Mr Winterfeld said HKL would have a positive impact on the Austrian rental market; "HKL's offering to customers in Austria will be large. Very interesting for customers will be our fleet of wheeled dump trucks, of which we will make a large stock available. Also planned is a range of Thwaites dumpers with rotating skips in the 1 to 6 t range. I am sure that our concept will meet the high expectations of our future customers in Austria."

HKL said it would start its operation focusing on renting strong brands. In addition to Thwaites, it will rent Bomag vibratory plates and rollers, Atlas Copco compressors and generators, Yanmar mini and compact excavators and tracked dumpers, Kramer wheel loaders and Merlo telescopic handlers.

The Austrian business joins HKL's existing businesses in Germany, Poland and Spain. It has 130 branches, 100 ‘Baushops' - for the sale of consumables and small tools and equipment - and more than 40 equipment service centres.