IN FOCUS / LIEBHERR TOWER CRANES
Liebherr has 100 tower cranes in the fleet.
LIEBHERR TOWER CRANES: A NEW BEGINNING Liebherr Tower Cranes is transitioning from being represented by a local dealer to a factory direct business since taking over the business activities of Morrow Equipment. IN JANUARY 2019, LIEBHERR TOWER Cranes division took over the Morrow Equipment Co business including facilities in Sydney, Brisbane and Wellington, New Zealand. Morrow Equipment had represented Liebherr Tower cranes for over 30 years. Thomas Schroeder, executive general manager Australia and New Zealand Liebherr Tower Cranes, is working with the former Morrow Equipment team on the transitioning period. Schroeder started with Liebherr in 2007 and has worked within the tower crane business in various countries including Spain, Germany, India and Thailand. With a background in finance, he finds himself transitioning a business from a dealership to a factory direct sales environment. For the last four years, he’s been working at the Liebherr-Werk Biberach GmbH Germany, looking after the tower crane strategy, including mergers and acquisitions. 40 / CAL July 2019
Morrow Equipment had been the US dealer for 50 years and had been the Liebherr dealer in Australia for over 30 years, so both were extremely wellestablished businesses. According to Schroeder, there were always going to be challenges with the transition. “The Australian tower crane market is predominantly focussed on rental. Morrow has been very successful in the rental market. This new collaboration will enable us to learn from their experience and with the joined forces, we’ll be able to support the Australian market even better,” he said. “When we first took over the operations in Australia, we made the customer the first priority and we didn’t want them to feel there had been change. That was a major focus initially, and I think this has been a success. “My job is to ensure customers continue to receive the same levels of service and support they are used to and gradually introduce the changes to
the internal systems and the way we do things,” he said. According to Schroeder, maintaining service and support is a key strategy and operating on a factory direct basis has obvious benefits. “We haven’t changed any of the support strategies that were in place through Morrow, so there are crane crews that maintain erect and dismantle the cranes and we have a technical support and service team. The main difference is the support we are now able to call upon from the factory. Being so close to the factory does have substantial benefits. “Being part of the Liebherr group gives us the chance to provide stronger sales and service support to our customers,” he said. Liebherr Tower Cranes has a central office in Caringbah, Sydney and a yard in Unanderra, an office and yard in Brisbane, and an office in Wellington. The only difference with the New Zealand operation is that it is not
