Page 22 from: December 2005

T he Liebherr family business was established in1949 by Hans Liebherr. The huge success of his
first mobile, easy-to-assemble and affordable tower
crane was the foundation on which the company
flourished. Today, Liebherr is not only one of the
world’s leading manufacturers of construction
machinery but is also an acknowledged supplier of
technically-innovative, user-oriented products and
services in numerous other fields such as:
* aviation equipment products (aircraft air man-

agement, flight control and actuation systems,
hydraulic systems and landing gear);

* domestic appliances (including table-top, free-
standing and combined refrigerators and freez-
ers, chest freezers, food storage and drink cool-
ing refrigerators, and wine cooling and wine-tem-
perature control cabinets);

* gear-cutting equipment such as gear-hobbing
and gear-shaping machines, generating- and pro-
file-grinding machines, and also cutting tools;

* equipment for rail vehicles;
* tower, mobile, maritime and crawler cranes;
* earth-moving and mining equipment;
* and, on a completely different tack, six hotels in

Austria and Ireland.

Strong growth

Over the years, the family business has grown
into a group of companies employing almost 23 000
people in more than 100 companies on all conti-
nents. ‘We are a global company with a tradition for
decentral operations close to customer’s needs,’ says
Rainer Zech, Marketing Manager at Liebherr’s
Kirchdorf plant for wheeled excavators in Germany.

The Liebherr Group is divided into manageable
company units which operate independently to
ensure proximity to the customer as well as an abil-
ity to respond flexibly to signals in global markets.

For the individual product segments, manage-
ment of the production and sales arms is in the
hands of divisional control companies. ‘The group
of Liebherr companies has a very flat responsibility
structure, so decisions can be made within a very
short time,’ notes Andreas Scheuerl, International
Sales Manager for the Kirchdorf plant.

Owned entirely by members of the Liebherr fam-
ily, the Liebherr Group’s holding company is
Liebherr-International AG which is based in Bulle,
Switzerland. Currently in the hands of the second
generation, the business is jointly managed by
Isolde and Willi Liebherr.

In 2004, total group turnover for the Liebherr
group of companies amounted to € 4.59 billion
(US$ 5.40 billion). Of this sum, excavator, crawlers,
loaders and mining equipment accounted for € 1.5
billion or 32.7%, and mobile cranes for 21.5% or
€ 985 million. In the same year, group investments
totalled € 253 million (US$ 298 million).

In terms of the regional sales split, Western Europe
came out on top with a 2004 turnover of € 3.03 bil-
lion, with the Americas in second place on € 553.9 mil-
lion. Third came the Far East and Australia with
€ 481.5 million, followed by Eastern Europe where
the group achieved a turnover of € 289.4 million.

Although 2004 was a record-breaking year for
Liebherr, 2005 appears likely to establish a new
sales peak. Compared to the first half of 2004,
turnover increased by € 364 million or 17.9 % to
€ 2.4 billion in January-June this year, with the
construction machinery sector again showing par-
ticularly strong growth.

‘Our production plants have been running at full
capacity all year long and there is currently a deliv-
ery time of some four months from ordering to com-
missioning,’ notes Mr Scheuerl. He attributes this
sales growth to the upward trend in the global econ-
omy, Liebherr’s worldwide expansion and the boom

S U P P L I E R

Recycling International • December 2005 22

Liebherr – the ‘Mercedes’
Considered by many in the scrap industry to be the ‘Mercedes’ of

the material handling world, Germany-based Liebherr has a formida-

ble reputation. With a range comprising more than 30 different types

of material handling machines and a presence on all continents,

Liebherr does its best to live up to it.

By Manfred Beck

Marketing Manager Rainer Zech (left) and
International Sales Manager Andreas Scheuerl
of Liebherr-Hydraulikbagger.

Hans Liebherr started the family business
56 years ago in this shed in Kirchdorf.

RI_030 Supplier 02-12-2005 12:10 Pagina 22