Riwal buys share of 123lift and employs Jeff Eisenberg

Riwal has further expanded its growing European footprint by acquiring a 70% share of Estonian access rental company 123lift. The company has also boosted its management team with the full-time appointment of finance specialist Jeff Eisenberg.

123lift's current managing director, Aivar Brock, will retain his stake and be responsible for growing the business throughout the Baltic States. Dick Schalekamp, Riwal’s managing director, said the plan was to expand 123lift in Lithuania and Latvia. The company has a couple of hundred aerials in the three Baltic countries.

At the same time Riwal is bolstering its management team by appointing rental finance specialist Jeff Eisenberg as a full-time employee. He will have responsibility for supporting Riwal’s financial and acquisitions activities. Mr Eisenberg has over 15 years experience in arranging finance for rental start-ups and equipment purchasing, and he is also a regular contributor to Access International. Jacques Catinot, managing director of Riwal France, meanwhile has been promoted to commercial director of the Riwal Group.

“We are setting up a good team to go forward”, said Mr Schalekamp.

Riwal announced last week that it was acquiring a 70% share of the Spanish rental company Grupo Clem. Javier Gómez González, managing director for Clem Riwal, told AI that less than 2% of the company’s business was in Spain’s troubled housing sector, and that “April was our best month for rental rates in the last four years.”