4 mins
In search of new markets
HYDRAULIC BREAKERS
Rotair has unveiled a vision to grow its hydraulic breaker business in strategic European markets.
PHOTO: ROTAIR
D&Ri talks to Italy’s Rotair, whose roots are in supplying compressors but is increasingly looking towards the hydraulic breaker sector, and not just in its own country.
“Hydraulic breakers are very important to us. They are not the core business of the company, that is producing compressors, but nevertheless it is a large business.”
Those are the words of Andrea Tramontana, sales team leader of Italian manufacturer Rotair.
Breakers may not be the core business, but they are a growing part of what the company produces, to the extent of pushing the brand into France and the United Kingdom, and appointing specialist sales managers to head up development in those countries.
“We were seeing interest in Europe,” says Andrea.
“But to be honest we did not have the right resources to dedicate to this business specifically. Now things are changing, there is a clear vision to grow in Europe and with selected strategic markets, and we start with France and the UK as strategic markets. In these two places we have new sales managers – Arnaud Frappier and Chris Vaughan – dedicated to Rotair products, and obviously the breaker will be a big part of their histor y and their business, so it is giving some good help to the growth of the area. It’s a more direct approach.”
Part of the reason for this recent expansion has been the company’s positive experience in its home market – where it has manufactured hydraulic breakers since the early part of this centur y and Italy accounts for around three-quarters of total sales worldwide – encouraged by extra custom brought about by government incentives to the construction industry. manufacturers in recent years.
CUSTOMER BASE
At the same time, Rotair, which also counts companies in Germany, Slovakia and South America among its customer base, believes that sales of breakers could be even healthier but for the well documented supply chain problems suffered by excavator >
A Rotair breaker in action.
PHOTO: ROTAIR
“There are two things to consider in this discussion,” says Andrea
. “From one side those incentives have given a lot of power to the purchase of new material in construction, mainly excavators and other equipment.
“Obviously the breaker is an accessory, so it goes together with an excavator. That’s the story of the breaker.
“But as you know a lot of manufacturers are struggling to deliver machines, and obviously in the business of hydraulic machines and excavators this has been tough.
“Despite the big quantity of orders that everybody has in hand it’s still not there, so obviously this is affecting the deliveries and the orders of the breakers themselves because they go together. So this is a challenge that we are facing now, but potentially the market could be bigger because these incentives have created a lot of business and generated a lot of business – in Italy at least.” When deciding to dedicate a sales operation to the United Kingdom, Rotair drew on its success in Ireland, where it already had a distributor in place.
PHOTO: MONTABERT
RENTAL COMPANIES
Andrea: “Ireland was always a market for us. We have a distributor in Ireland, in the north but which is covering the whole country. And we have been selling breakers to them for many years.
“We had some collaboration in the past with some spot sales customers in the UK. The goal now is to re-establish the link with all of them, and to try and get in touch with some rental companies also because rental is a large business in the UK and this product can perfectly fit into a medium or small rental company. We will start with smaller and medium-sized rental companies and then approach the bigger ones when we can.
“It is the same in France, a new approach to business. The more products you put in the portfolio, the more opportunity for sales and business you have.”
Rotair has built its confidence in hydraulic breakers on what it describes as the versatility and ease of use of the product, which make it attractive to customers across a range of markets. As such it feels that business outside Italy to continue its upward trend, and will continue with technological change in machine drive technology, whether electric or hydrogen.
“We expect this to grow significantly in the next few years,” says Andrea.
“In Europe, we can go deep into the market, we can approach different kinds of customers and we have resources that we did not always have in the past.” ■
Montabert takes compact route nerated
The company describes the SD series of hydraulic breakers as being designed for use on skid-steer loaders, backhoe loaders, and miniexcavators, to allow users to achieve multiple tasks with a single carrier and a single at tachment. Charles Polak, whose company Inmalo distributes them in the United Kingdom, said they are a great improvement on the previous range and that customers have been waiting for the upgrade.
In addition, bushings, pins, and tools can be replaced in the field without removing the breaker from the carrier. The fully enclosed, soundproof cradle reduces vibrations transferred to the carrier, while an energy chamber The acts as hydraulic shock absorber and reduces pressure variations in the Montabert hydraulic circuits to provide consistent energy to the breaker. The range SD36 includes models for compact carriers from 1 to 12 t. compact
The Montaber t Silent Demolition Tools range is designed and built to breaker. provide contractors with an excellent price-per formance ratio and low maintenance cost and according to the company a combination of wear -resistant steels and high-qualit y components makes them versatile, ef ficient, and durable. Grapples are designed for carriers from 5 tup to 100 t. They feature 360° rotation, Hardox 400-450 jaws and Hardox 500 exchangeable blades.