Riwal Denmark has acquired about 700 aerial work platforms from Danish aerial rental specialist BMS, as well as some of the company’s personnel and trucks. The two companies have started an intensive partnership to provide combined access solutions in the Danish market. The companies have been negotiating the deal since the beginning of the year.
With the acquisition, Riwal increases its already strong market share to 20 to 25 percent in Denmark and its Scandinavian fleet to about 2,200 aerial units. BMS will now focus more on its original rental business, primarily mobile cranes and large truck-mounted lifts with drivers, used primarily within the wind turbine and telecom sectors.
The two companies are entering a partnership for customers that require both cranes and aerial work platforms on a jobsite, allowing customers more specialized solutions.
“It has long been evident that consolidation was needed in the very price-sensitive AWP market,” said Jens Enggaard, CEO of BMS. “In Riwal, we believe we have found exactly the right buyer and partner. We are very much looking forward to cooperating and being able to focus more closely on our core services.”
“We plan to move part of our rental fleet to Sweden and Germany to restore the equilibrium of supply and demand in the Danish AWP market,” added Søren Rosenkrands, general manager of Riwal Denmark. “The agreement will contribute to the necessary consolidation within the sector, where large-scale operations are uncommon. It is becoming increasingly necessary to exploit economies of scale. Servicing the lifts, logistics and customer service are our No. 1 priority. The market demands more and more quality and greater efforts in occupational safety and health. We will take these challenges in our stride.”
Riwal, an international aerial company based in Dordrecht, The Netherlands, is one of the world’s largest JLG dealers. The company has about 30 branches in Holland, Denmark, Norway, France, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Spain and Brazil, along with joint ventures in other European countries and the Middle East.
