Im sure liebherr is Austrian ( Germans all the same)
This is interasting. I spent 37 years of my life in a British crane manufacturing plant (Coles Cranes) in 1994 the parent co. Acrow went bust. but Coles Cranes who exported its product to every country in the world, was doing OK as a stand alone business, with a full order book.
The then management made an offer to the reciever but were outbid by our USA competetors GROVE. They were delighted to now own a European manufacturing plant, with more sophistcated products, which Europe demanded, and they did not produce.
All went well for a few years till German re-unification, when East Germany turned into the largest construction site in Europe. Try as we may we could not penetrate that market. Germans purchased German kit,
Liebherr, Gottwald, Krupp etc.
It was then that our American owners decided that to get a piece of the action they would have to buy a German crane manufacturer, so they bought Krupp Cranes in Willhlmshaven. I knew then that the writing was on the wall. Grove needed a European manufacturing facility, they did not need two. Coles Cranes closed in 1999.
Britain now imports its total reuirement for mobile/truck cranes.
We ca'nt beat them, lets joim them.
