Verlinde has appointed Pierre Eluard as managing director. He succeeds François Gurniki, who has been at the head of the company for the last seven years.
Eluard, joined Verlinde in 2021, taking on the dual role as deputy general manager and sales manager for Southeast Asia. Over the past three years, he has brought his own vision to develop the company’s exports, in collaboration with the sales directors, focusing on commercial growth and subscribing to its slogan Next Level Partnership. With the appointment of Eluard at the head of the company, Verlinde begins a new phase in its expansion strategy.
Headquartered in Vernouillet (Eure-et-Loire), near Paris, France, Verlinde has been a member of the Finnish Konecranes group since 1986. As such, Verlinde belongs to a family of companies with lifting expertise, renowned for the quality and reliability of their products. The figures speak for themselves: 80% of customers have been loyal partners of Verlinde for over 20 years.
“I have 15 years experience in the aeronautics industry, in major companies such as Dassault Aviation and Safran, where I held positions of responsibility in international sales, business development and marketing. In particular, I spent several years working in the USA, and managed customers all over the world, from Brazil, Italy and the Nordic countries to India, Turkey and China,” said Eluard.
“In 2020, the COVID crisis hardly hit the aerospace sector, and although Safran is an excellent company with great products, I felt the need to start a new professional cycle and take on new challenges. This is what led me to join Verlinde, in August 2021, in the dual role of deputy managing director and sales manager for South-East Asia, and now as managing director. It was a risky gamble but one that paid off, with the help of the motivated and dynamic team working with me. What is essential for me in my professional life are the projects that I manage and the people I am working with.
“As sales manager for Southeast Asia, I have worked hard to redynamize the region. In this regard, we are pleased to announce the arrival of a new sales manager based in Singapore since mid-April 2024 to keep up and strengthen this activity.
“As deputy MD, I led a Lean Management project – the “one KC way” project – to identify possible improvements to our end-to-end process and to gain in efficiency so we can improve the way we support our customers.
“I am also responsible for streamlining and optimizing our relations with one of the group’s main factories in Wetter, Germany, which manufactures our light lifting product ranges (manual hoists, electric chain hoists, light crane systems). With performance falling far short of our expectations, we had to build relationships between the teams, identify simple actions to optimize communication and processes between our entities, and thus improve customer satisfaction.
“We want Verlinde to be known and recognized both in France and internationally. We want to become the benchmark brand in the lifting industry for the quality of our products and the quality of the services we offer to our customers. It is not going to be a smooth ride, but we have the skills and the determination to get there. We have hired a marketing manager, whose main priorities will be to build our marketing and communication plan in a structured way, and in particular to boost the reputation of the Verlinde brand.”
In 2023, Verlinde saw sales of €54 million euros for new equipment and €11 million euros for spare parts. The company has 40 employees and production sites in Germany, Finland and China, around two-thirds of its sales come from exports.
The company also recently recruited two sales managers in Singapore and Dubai to meet a growing demand in these markets and to be closer to customers to better support them.
“Like many industries, the market for lifting equipment is closely linked to national macro-economic conditions. In recent years, after the COVID pandemic followed by the energy crisis, we have seen a decline in sales of “off-the-shelf” products, with an increase in demand for spare parts and modernization projects for existing cranes. In addition, we are now more dependent on major projects, which exposes us to aggressive competition and greater fluctuation in our sales. In France, our business is holding up well, and we have good prospects for growth in the Middle East, South America and South-East Asia, although we are seeing a significant downturn in China,” said Eluard.
“In the domestic market, our aim is to maintain our leading position and regain market share in light lifting, by constantly improving the quality of our deliveries and building on our existing distribution network. Internationally, we aim to raise Verlinde’s profile by capitalizing on specific product lines such as our Stagemaker product line, dedicated to the world of entertainment, our Explosion proof hoists and our Eurobloc Belt Hoists.
“We are pleased to announce the arrival of our new wire rope hoist, the new VF, which will gradually replace our Eurobloc VT range over the next few years, with features compatible with Industry 4.0. In addition, we have just started to offer a new ATEX-certified electric chain hoist, in response to growing demand from some of our partners for this type of product.
“We have set up a “quick ship” stock of Eurochain VX and Stagemaker hoists in our German factory, available for rapid dispatch, to be able to respond efficiently to our customers’ needs. In addition, we are actively working to improve our performance and customer relations, notably through the development of our online tools and our new representatives abroad. Our aim is to move forward and innovate, while remaining true to our values and constantly adapting to market developments.”
