irn060712.xml

Caterpillar's dealer in South Africa, Barloworld Equipment, is piloting a Cat Rental Store inside a Cashbuild DIY superstore at the Hillfox Shopping Centre in Johannesburg. Cashbuild is the region's largest builders merchants/DIY store with over 150 branches in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Malawi. More in-store branches could open if the pilot proves successful. Meanwhile in Europe new Cat Rental Stores will open in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Poland within a year, said Andy Zuckermann, rental operations manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Mr Zuckermann told IRN that Cat dealer Pon would open branches in Sweden this year and in Norway by the first quarter of 2008. He said Pon had still to determine when it would open Cat rental stores in the Netherlands and Denmark.