2002-10-04

Kalmar Industries, the world’s leading manufacturer of mobile handling equipment for ports, terminals and heavy industry, has taken a step closer to its customers in Central and Southern Europe with the introduction of a European distribution centre (EDC) for spare parts.

The introduction of the new centre, which opened in August 2002 and which is located in Metz (north east France), has brought with it a number of new benefits for customers in the region. They now have, for example, instant access to over 12,000 spare parts and components. These parts can be sourced using Kalmar’s fully integrated IT system (Kalmar dealers are able to access this information via the Internet) and can be sent out overnight by road to reach most of Europe within a day. This essentially means that Kalmar customers in Central and Southern Europe no longer need to stockpile their own spare parts supplies and this in turn frees up capital and allows customers to invest more in their core business activities.

Located close to many of Kalmar’s key suppliers, the EDC can be restocked quickly and easily should it run out of a particular part.

Hans Jansson, Vice President, Materials Management, Kalmar Solutions, comments on the introduction of the new centre:

“There are more than 5,000 Kalmar machines in operation within the area covered by the new distribution centre and Central and Southern Europe is one of our key markets. For these reasons we thought it necessary to create a new distribution centre in the locality, which could respond quickly to the spare parts requirements of those customers based there.”

The addition of the EDC means that Kalmar now operates, either in-house or through a third party agent, distribution centres in Scandinavia, Central Europe, the USA and the Far East.

The EDC is operated by CAT Logistics on behalf of Kalmar.

Note to Editors

CAT Logistics is a fully owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc. It provides global logistics solutions to third parties throughout the world. Some of its other clients include: DaimlerChrysler, Ford, Harley Davison, Ericsson, Toshiba and Kodak.

It signed its first logistics contract with a Partek company (Hiab AB) in 1995 and as such created a central warehouse facility for it in Metz, France. The Kalmar spare parts business has been integrated into the same warehouse alongside Hiab AB and another CAT Logistics client, Electrolux.

Kalmar is a global provider of heavy duty materials handling equipment and services to ports, intermodal traffic, terminals and demanding industrial customers. Kalmar focuses on supplying handling solutions that enable customers to operate with a high level of efficiency and reliability. Every fourth container or trailer transfer at terminals around the world is handled by a Kalmar machine. Kalmar provides a large range of value added services such as maintenance contracts and fleet management. Manufacturing plants are situated in Sweden (as is the head office), in Finland, in the USA, in the Netherlands and in Estonia.

For further information regarding CAT Logistics contact: Tom De Roove, Account Manager, CAT Logistics, email: