The Putzmeister team are looking ahead to prestigious projects such as Kingdom Tower
The Putzmeister brand is to stay in the Middle East, according to its regional director Jens Bawidamann.
Ever since Sany acquired the German concrete specialist earlier this year there has been a debate as to how that will affect Putzmeister substantial global presence.
Following Sany’s president Tang Xiuguo statement that it plans to invest 300 million euros into its new purchase, Putzmeister is likely to remain a largely independent brand in many markets, including the Middle East.
Putzmeister has worked on several prestigious projects in the region including the Burj Khalifa and is the leading brand outside of China, says Bawidamann.
“If you look at global production, 7,000 truck-mounted pumps per year are produced worldwide and 5,000 are going to China,” he remarked. “Sany is the number one in China, but outside the world we are number one. Take the Middle East, we have been here for 32 years, we have the dealer network and know the market; and understand you have to be flexible and know the people.”
“Sany tried it but in the Chinese style. It worked but it was not that successful. Sany had a product, but the rest, well; there was still room for improvement. Sany have seen that somehow that it is not working and yet have looked at us, like Asterix and Obelix, and wondered ‘how are these little guys doing it’,” he said. “Now it is like this Putzmeister is owned by Sany, but we remain independent, with our own management, engineering and production.”
According to Bawidamann, here are some markets like the Sudan where Sany might take the lead, but, he says “in the key markets outside of China, such as the US, Europe and the Middle East, Putzmeister is doing the business.”
For the Middle East, that means Putzmeister will handle the aftersales and service of the existing Sany equipment but he says they will concentrate on selling Putzmeister.
“I’ll be honest, given that last year saw us become thin, fast, earning money again and back on track, I never had in mind that we would jump to Sany. It really came out of the blue,” he continued. “Call it something to do with pride, but the first few days were not easy. But then thinking about the whole picture, I realised it was a really good decision from our management to approach Sany. It came from our side.”
You can read the full interview: ‘Staying Putz’ in the June issue of Construction Machinery Middle East