Serge Bosche, president of Manitou in North America, has served the company for 25 years and has helped guide the manufacturer through good times and bad times. In this candid conversation with RER's Michael Roth, Bosche talks about the current market, how Manitou developed its high-quality engineering, its acquisition of Gehl and the company's growing U.S. manufacturing capability.

RER: When did you begin with Manitou?

Bosche: I started in France in 1983, so it's been 25 years. My one and only job out of college. I came to the States in 1985.

Did you speak much English then?

I studied here in the U.S., I have an MBA from Bowling Green in Ohio. So I actually joined Manitou because I knew they had a subsidiary here in the U.S. and that I had a good chance to come to the U.S., which I thought would be a good experience for three or four years. Here I am 23 years later, and I've enjoyed every moment of it.

Manitou is well regarded for high-quality engineering. How did this emphasis develop? Do you devote a lot of resources to research and development?

When it comes to the engineering of our products, it's a mix of two things. Number one is the fact that the history of the company has always been to grow through listening to customers. We've always been very close to the users of the machines and listening to them has made us what we are today. They know more than we do about what they need in performance, features and benefits. That's the backbone of the company, that ear to the marketplace to come up with products that the customers want and need. Second, when it comes to the look of the machine, the European marketplace puts more emphasis on features and looks, and the ergonomics of the machine. We see that happening here to some extent in the U.S. marketplace.

For example, the MRT forklift truck technology is incredible for a forklift. It's closer to a crane, a 360-degree rotating machine, with sophisticated systems. But this did not develop because we were dreaming of a particular machine. It was the marketplace saying it would be great if we could come up with a machine with these features. That's really the background of why we are at this stage today. We invest significantly in the future, coming up with new products on a regular basis with features and performance that the marketplace needs.

What are some of your new products?

The latest product is our MHT, a line of high-capacity telescopic machines. Our biggest model is the 10210, a 46,000-pound telescopic machine. It's a very specialized segment of activity, we've had very good success with so far in varied industrial, mining, heavy construction, and military applications. We currently offer three models with different capacities, and we plan on expanding that product offering.

What inspired Manitou to acquire the Gehl line?

The primary factor was gaining market share here in North America. We've always been more of a niche, specialized player here in the U.S. Manitou, on average throughout the world, has about a 30-percent market share. One out of three telescopics used today in the world is Manitou. Our weak spot, when it comes to market share has always been North America. So Gehl has been a good fit for that. It has good products, with a good market share here in the U.S.

From a corporate culture standpoint, our two organizations work very well together with common values. We look at distribution in very much the same way. We can consolidate our place as No. 1 in this business worldwide by accessing market share here in the U.S. with a couple of valuable recognized brands, Gehl and Mustang.

The second reason is Gehl is very successful with its skid-steer loaders and we think we can offer quite a bit to that business from a world distribution standpoint. Gehl has done very well in Western Europe, they have a good distribution system. But we can leverage our Manitou world distribution and benefit quickly in terms of volume.

We have virtually no overlap in terms of products, which is nice. We think we've got the best of both worlds now where we can address the specifics of the market in terms of organization and product. That will bear fruit for years to come.

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