New LTECH depot proves successful
By Richard High01 July 2008
Speaking to AI at Russia's CTT Show in Moscow in mid-June, Mr Pankin said the new depot covers the whole of the Volga region - from central Russia to the Urals, including major urban centres such as Samara, Volgograd, Kazan (the capital of Tatarstan), and Ulyanovsk, the birthplace of Lenin.
Despite covering such a huge geographic area, the decision to invest €200000 in office and workshop space, alongside about € 1.5 million in equipment, has quickly brought rewards, prompting LTECH to expand quicker than it had originally planned. "That success, through all three channels - rental, lease and sales - means we're now planning to open a small spare parts and service centre in the six biggest cities in the region," said Mr Pankin.
"This will mean we can increase the response time of our service engineers, while making a greater variety of spare parts available locally," he added.
However, investment in these newer service and spare parts facilities might not need to be so high. There is no competition regionally, he said, so each office will be set up with just four people and the necessary spare parts and equipment.
Like the main office in Moscow, the Novgorod depot offers a wide range of access equipment, including scissor lifts, telescopic booms, mast climbers, material hoists, telehandlers and mini crawler cranes to buy, rent or lease. By far the most popular option is rental.
"Our most popular line is scissor lifts with a working height of 18 m, but we're beginning to see more demand for 10 and 17 m lift telehandlers, mast climbers and material hoists too. Demand comes mainly from shopping centres and office buildings for maintenance," said Mr Pankin.
At present one of LTECH's biggest clients is Russian retail chain Mosmart, which invested RUR 2 billion (€ 54 million) in its outlets in 2007. Mosmart presently has 12 machines working at various storess around the region, the majority of which are MEC 3247ES scissor lifts.
Looking ahead, LTECH's CEO Mikhail Malvinskiy is keen to expand again. He told AI the company is looking at Socchi, where the Winter 2014 Olympics are being held. However, being 1500 km from Moscow has its problems. "It's all about logistics, so may require more of an investment," he said.
And while the number of offices is expanding so is the range of equipment. LTECH has recently done deals with Maeda, Nostolift and Thomas Equipment, so mini cranes, telescopic booms and skid steer loaders are now available to its customers.
Mr Malvinskiy said the company is also in negotiation with Upright and had just finalized a deal with Secalt to offer building maintenance units. In the longterm, said Mr Malvinskiy, "the future looks bright."
