Terex committed to Construction division

Terex CEO Ron DeFeo said the company remained committed to retaining and growing its Construction division, with a greater focus on rental market sales in the future.

Mr DeFeo, speaking at the Terex press conference at Conexpo, said the company would leverage its Genie aerial platform business to increase sales to the rental channel and further adapt its products – which include excavators and backhoe loaders – to the rental market.

“Our construction products are still too expensive and too traditional”, he said, “Give us some time to adapt them and work with Genie [for the rental channel]…I’d rather grow the business than walk away from the business.”

There had been some speculation about the future of the Construction division following the decision to sell the dump truck business to Volvo CE, a transaction which is due to close in the second quarter of this year. Mr DeFeo said the decision had been the right one for Terex.

George Ellis, president of the Construction division, said the company would develop a range of ‘channel specific’ backhoes and material handling products during 2014 and 2015.

As part of the rental growth strategy, Terex launched a ‘Direct to Rental’ (D2R) programme at the Rental Show earlier this year. That will see Genie to sell selected Terex Construction products to its rental customers in North America, including backhoe loaders and boom truck cranes from Terex Cranes.