trailer world Issue Two 2013

20 Issue Two 2013 Ekeri was hit hard by the worldwide eco- nomic and financial crisis: production by the Finnish trailer and bodywork manufac- turer reduced from 600 to 300 units. Like- wise, the turnover nearly halved. “That was tough”, remembers Mikael Eklund. “How- ever, we have learned that there are extreme niche markets in Europe”, he explains. They secured survival. The market for side doors, offering generous opportunities for loading is one such a niche market. Furthermore, Ekeri adapted the successful trailer model for the transport of hazardous goods – and with it, generated new business in Belgium, the Neth- erlands, Great Britain and also Germany. Today, Ekeri is back to the pre-crisis lev- el. “But now we are stronger and more effi- cient than we used to be”, stresses the man- ager and joint-proprietor of Ekeri. Eklund does not think sustainability has to be sec- ond place. On the contrary, he has created hard facts: a power station with wood pel- lets heats the company. “This is 100 per cent green. Furthermore, our trailers are nev- er empty on the long distances covered in Scandinavia.” This is unusual. Never emp- ty? No, food is transported from the South into the north of Scandinavia. “Wood or steel is transported in the other direction”, confirms Eklund. The home markets of Finland, Sweden and Norway thankfully accept the special- isation of Ekeri. “The more specialised the requests, the better for us”, knows Eklund. From 1 October, Finland will register lorries with a permissible gross weight of 76 tonnes; at present the threshold is 60 tonnes. For the chassis from Finland, this promises a lot of innovation potential. KH-Kipper is multi-talented: the Pol- ish firm with its headquarters near the city of Kielce produces trailers, tippers semi-trailers, vehicle fitted loader cranes, and much more. It has production capaci- ties of over 1,500 units in its factories. The trailer customer circle of KH-Kipper is distributed mostly over a geographical area with a diameter of 3,000 km. Andrzej Kamionka puts the emphasis on stable busi- ness areas, which allow for a wide market presence. “Our policy is: no seasonally de- pendent product, no dependency on only a single market”. This approach also seems to be a lesson learnt from the economic and financial crisis. “We have used the time to improve our international organisation, win some new customers and markets and to develop new products and solutions”, lists the junior manager. Very important for him are also the war- ranty periods of the products. “We do not produce the units, so they just fulfil their standard warranty time of two years”. Contracts are consciously closed over peri- ods of three years. “It is the best recommen- dation for us, if the customer can still sell the old vehicle for a good price so that it can be swapped for a new model of the KH-Kipper brand”. (tof) »Whenever we speak about sustainability and Ekeri trailer, the main argument for the sustainability is the flexibility of our trailers: They are never empty on the long distances covered in Scandinavia. I see this as a very green argument.« »Every dedicated manager has a lot of ideas. The deciding factor is to have the right people around you, in order to make most of the ideas work. Every year, we develop new solutions for North, West and Eastern Europe and for what we call the rest of the market. This calls for large input, but ultimately, it pays out monetarily, in satisfaction and in competitive advantages.« Mikael Eklund, Managing Director, Ekeri Andrzej Kamionka, Vice-President, KH-KIPPER Sp. z o. o. Finland Poland Illustrations:HeddaChristians Survey

trailer world Issue Two 2013

Pages