Italy meets China

In one of the boldest moves to date by a Chinese manufacturer, last September saw a consortium including Zoomlion acquire Italian concrete equipment manufacturer Cifa. According to marketing director Kenny He, the addition will mean a bigger distribution network for both brands.

Mr He told CE, "Zoomlion is an export oriented company and roughly 20% of our revenues come from overseas markets. In 2009 we would like it to be much more than that, and Cifa will contribute a lot to that.

"The rationale is to help Zoomlion globalise by integrating Cifa, a strong, healthy international player. Cifa's global distribution network will be a great contribution, as is the technology and R&D capability. Cifa also has an experienced management team, which is well regarded by Zoomlion.

"The brand positioning is different and the target customers are different. The target customers for Zoomlion are a little bit more price-conscious and the target customers for Cifa are more quality-focussed.

"Over the next two or three years, we will have several production bases, mainly in Italy and China. In China we will produce both Cifa and Zoomlion products for China and the rest of Asia. In Italy, I think we'll just be producing Cifa-branded products for Europe and North America."