New Ramirent CEO 'ready for the challenge'

Magnus Rosén took up his new post as chief executive officer of Ramirent today (15 January) and said he was ready for the challenge of leading the company through a difficult economic period. Mr Rosén replaces Kari Kallio who announced in May 2008 that he would retire from the business.

"I feel that this is my home turf. The opportunity to lead one of the biggest European rental companies is a big challenge to me", said Mr Rosén, who comes to Ramirent after a 20 year career in rental, including ten years with its major competitor Cramo.

In an interview published on Ramirent's website, Mr Rosén said the company had already taken measures to cut costs in the face of the weakening market conditions - it announced job cuts of 600 in December - and he said all of the company's operations would implement cost saving programmes over the coming months, with contingency plans were being created if the market weakens further.

However, he said Ramirent was well position to weather the recession; "Ramirent has one of the strongest balance sheets in the market. Also, we started the restructuring earlier that our competitors, so we are in a good phase".

Mr Rosén said that in the longer term, Ramirent would benefit from increased demand from rental in central and eastern Europe, and also through further diversification into industrial markets. "I can also foresee that outsourcing discussions with customers will become more frequent from now on, because customers are more willing to discuss these things when the economy is lagging behind. For customers, cash flow will be more exciting."

Under Kari Kallio's leadership Ramirent grew through acquisitions and organic growth and doubled its net sales.