But with three major new models launched or planned for launch this year, kit hoists are more popular than ever.
It is their very portability that makes them worthwhile. Kit hoists can be sent anywhere a lorry can reach, with up to a few months’ ordering time. The kits require no real engineering, and little specialised knowledge, to install and commission. The customer does not need to invest in its own factory, or machine tools. Start-up costs are relatively low. All the customer needs to find is a small metal fabrication shop that can weld structural box girders.
Hoist manufacturers in turn can run highly-engineered factories from their established base, such as northern Europe, where the markets are at best steady, and at worst in decline, and still be able to reach today’s crane hot spot.
French manufacturer ADC-Fayat and UK manufacturer Street are both enthusiastically extending the kit market upward by launching new high-capacity kit hoists.
ADC has designed its largest-ever kit hoist specifically for shipping to export markets. The double-girder trolley hoist ranges in capacity from 16t to 50t, depending on duty rating, with eight falls of rope and lifting speeds from 3.4m/min (11.1 ft/min) to 7.4m/min (24.3 ft/min).
“We are not trying to export to Germany or similar countries,” says Eric Levêque. “We are going to expanding markets.” He cites North Africa, South America and the Middle East as promising candidates.
Street is planning to launch a new kit hoist by November with a lifting capacity of up to 50t with eight falls of wire rope, or 12.5t with two falls. The hoist is designed to fill a gap between the firm’s largest kit crane – 25t – and its custom-made open winch hoist. The company’s kits reach spans up to 30m (98.4ft).
“Our open winch hoist is robust, but it is not as competitive as hoists from Konecranes and Demag,” says Street managing director Andrew Pimblett.
Pimblett says that kits are fundamental to the company’s strategy for export to its network of exclusive worldwide dealers.
“Business is so very, very good,” says Andrew Pimblett. “I joined the company in 1969 as an apprentice and I don’t think that things looked as positive as they do now,” he adds. The company reported in February that its new order volume was up 19% compared with last year. New cranes were up 6%, and components – which include kits – were up 55%.
The company, originally founded as a specialist in special cranes, moved into standardised cranes in the 1970s, when the company’s production increased by five or six times to about 400 cranes per year.
“It is nothing like as exciting as now,” he says. “Now there is a world market. At the moment, the market for cranes in Thailand is bigger than the UK – let alone China. (He estimates a UK market of 1,000 cranes per year). The way Demag and KCI Konecranes are going isn’t producing a solution that all end users like,” he says. “Customers are not left with a lot of choice.”
In particular, Pimblett says that Street is winning by having simple electronics that are easier to maintain or to patch up in case of an emergency. Its international expansion also depends on the success of its dealers.
“As the new kid on the block when it comes to international growth, Street has aspirations to further increase market share worldwide; however, the the option of worldwide fabrication plants is a non-starter as the return on capital simply does not justify the investment,” Pimblett said. Instead, the company focuses on product R&D, and leaves the rest to its partners – it asks its dealers to buy exclusively from Street.
“We argue that there are advantages to work together. It is like a family – each of the members depend on each other. The family has been successful in how people live. We have proved that outside of the US partner agreements work.” He admitted that it had been more difficult to convince US dealers to go exclusive.
At a much larger volume of production, worldwide fabrication plants start to make sense. This is the situation that US-based hoist manufacturer Columbus McKinnon currently finds itself with its new model of the Shaw-Box Global King/Yale World Series, demoed to a recent gathering of 40 (non-exclusive) CraneMart dealers in March.
The hoist, essentially a kit product, is intended not just for the North American market, but also for South America and Asia.
“What we have to realize now is that the North American business is extremely robust, and we are concentrating on selling this hoist through the Yale/Lift-Tech brands here,” says vice president, sales, Ned Librock.
Once the range is complete, in 12 months, CM will sell the hoist out of the Yale Hangzhou plant and in our Thailand operation. Yale Europe will be in charge of the multi-brand strategy in Europe.
CM’s strategy is to manufacture the hoist in large-scale serial production, but to do it in several locations around the world.
“The ideal situation eventually is that rather than export to China, we will make everything in China, and use it as a distribution point for south-east Asia. While we will buy components from Chinese plants, it may be cost-effective to buy electrical contactors or wire rope from sources in North America. It wouldn’t be 100% sourced in Asia. That’s not a significant statistic for us. We are looking at low-cost sourcing and manufacturing for most new products. With an international focus, and the price pressures, we need to make as much as possible in non-North America operations to take from an attitude of export to international marketing. That is one of our big transitions, getting out of the export mentality.”
