CASE Construction Equipment is primed for growth under a new business model. Since early 2018, in EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) the CNH Industrial Construction Equipment brand’s wide product range has been divided into three distinct sales segments: General Construction (excavators, wheeled loaders), Compact & Service Equipment (skid steers, mini excavators, compact wheeled loaders and backhoe loaders), and Road Building & Site Preparation (graders, dozers & compactors). Speaking at last week’s
CASE Construction Equipment is primed for growth under a new business model.
Since early 2018, in EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) the CNH Industrial Construction Equipment brand’s wide product range has been divided into three distinct sales segments: General Construction (excavators, wheeled loaders), Compact & Service Equipment (skid steers, mini excavators, compact wheeled loaders and backhoe loaders), and Road Building & Site Preparation (graders, dozers & compactors).
Speaking at last week’s Intermat 2018 Paris exhibition, Jose Cuadrado, CASE’s vice president Construction Equipment EMEA region, said: “We’ve gone from offering 11 product lines through the market to having specific focus on specific segments and applications in order to better understand how to be successful. We’ve given opportunities to some of our best talents and complemented this by hiring expertise from outside. We’ve also reorganised our organisation further to have a channel focus along with standalone key account organisation for the EMEA region.
“Having said all this, we intend to claim our position in the market and be recognised as a full solutions provider, not just a product provider.” Cuadrado said this had led to the introduction of more equipment finance purchasing options for customers via CNH Industrial Capital, more attractive warranty and fleet servicing packages, and more comprehensive data management through telematics installed on CASE machines.
Assessing the European construction equipment market and the potential for growth, Cuadrado said: “We have our core markets where we have traditionally been stronger, those in the south of Europe, such as France, Spain and Italy. Then we have other markets that we haven’t had very high markets shares in the past, such as Eastern Europe and Germany. We believe there are opportunities for us in both these kinds of markets. We also see East Africa as having fantastic opportunities for us. We’ve got a great brand and great product portfolio.”
CASE’s Intermat 2018 Paris stand included a focus on the brand’s dozers and graders, which offer solutions said to combine maximum productivity with competitive Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): from the CASE SiteControl machine control and the efficient and powerful FPT Industrial engine technologies, to the recently introduced LED lights package and auto-lubrication system. A new waste handler wheeled loader – the 821G- was also on show. And there was a special focus on CASE’s 60 years of wheeled loader production.
Carl Gustaf Göransson, brand president – Construction Equipment, member of CNH Industrial Group Executive Council, said he thought CASE was “doing the right things” with regard to placing its product line-up within clear equipment segments. “We are now organised in such a way that we can say to the dealer ‘your total market for wheeled loaders is 2,000 units, why are we only selling 200?’ We can then look at what we can do together with our partners to direct business more efficiently.”
The CASE and New Holland brands within CNH Industrial Construction Equipment were allocated different market sectors by CNH Industrial in 2014. Since then, CASE machine models are targeted in EMEA, at general construction, road construction, recycling and quarrying industry customers, and New Holland’s are geared towards agriculture sector equipment buyers.
Speaking about how CASE’s products standout from competitors’ models, Göransson said: “Everything we do is about winning and retaining customer loyalty – from the new customers to the long-term ones. We want our customers to get into the cab of a CASE wheeled loader or skid steer, for example, and instantly feel that they are operating a CASE model.”
As a prominent brand within CNH Industrial, a US$27 billion plus revenues/year industrial manufacturing giant of construction and agricultural equipment, trucks and commercial vehicles, buses, special vehicles and industrial and marine powertrains, CASE can draw on a huge footprint of parts distribution centres. This includes a recently opened major parts distribution hub in Dubai for CNH Industrial Middle East region customers. It means CASE and other CNH Industrial brand customers can expect machine downtime due to the need for a part or parts replacement to be kept to a minimum.
More than 20,000 CASE equipment units on customer worksite worldwide are connected to the brand’s SiteWatch telematics solution. CASE SiteWatch is designed to gather critical information about a customer machine’s performance and location and make that data quickly available. This leads to more informed decisions about fleet management issues and, potentially, earlier intervention to stop or prevent work site problems, such as excessive unit idle time leading to costly unproductive fuel use.
“We are aiming to introduce more intuitive technology into our products,” said Göransson. “We also think our customers can get more out of SiteWatch’s existing data gathering capabilities. As part of this, we want our telematics to help improve health and safety in the quarrying industry.” This, Göransson explains, could include for example, developing a solution that alerts a quarry vehicle operator and on-foot quarry workers to the other’s close presence using GPS satellite technology.
