Genie Industries has selected a new manufacturing site in China as part of a plan to expand globally. Genie, the Redmond, Wash.-based aerial work platform division of Terex Corp., recently began manufacturing Genie-branded scissorlifts in Coventry, England, and boomlifts and telehandlers in Perugia, Italy.
The move is part of Genie’s efforts to bring the manufacturing process closer to its customer base.
“In 2007, a large percentage of our sales came from outside North America,” Genie president Tim Ford said. “Our markets around the world are growing and we want to provide them with world-class products, designed and produced locally, to their local specifications. Manufacturing globally will shorten lead times for all customers, as the addition of this new plant will also free up some of our current capacity to support customers in other regions of the world more effectively.”
Genie chose a business park in Changzhou, China, a few hours northwest of Shanghai to build its production facility and plans to break ground during the second quarter. At first, the company will focus on preparing a line of personnel lifts, and then expand over time to produce Genie’s full range of aerial work platform products.
The Changzhou location is large enough to be part of a future Terex Corp. manufacturing campus, Genie said.
“The Asia market in general, and the China market specifically, is learning about the importance of the lift product category,” said Ford. “Aerial work platforms are increasingly becoming more widely accepted as a safe option for people who work in high places.”
“We’ve historically been two-thirds in North America and one-third outside of North America,” Ford told RER in a recent interview. “That revenue mix changed in 2007, partly because of the market demand and partly because we were pushing it in that direction. We’re beginning to manufacture products closer to the customer.
“As part of our globalization strategy we intend to manufacture, by 2010, 50 percent of our production in Europe for Europe, and 30 percent of our production in Asia for Asia. So we’re going to go from nothing to a substantial part of a region’s production by 2010.”
