Ammann and Yanmar dissolve European partnership

Ammann and Yanmar have dissolved their mini-excavator manufacturing joint venture in Europe. Yanmar will now run the French excavator plant on its own and Ammann will focus entirely on the compaction market.

The two companies, who created the partnership in 1989, said the split was amicable and based on business logic, with the synergies that prompted the venture no longer existing.

Ammann-Yanmar said Ammann's acquisitions of Stavostroj in 2005 and Antec/IRM last year had made it a strong company capable of "standing on its own strong legs"; and that there was a decreasing number of dealers carrying both Ammann and Ammann-Yanmar products.

It said the two product lines were penetrating the market independently and that "synergies were no longer always present."

In addition, "sales markets have shifted noticeably towards rental markets in recent years. That is an activity which Ammann/Avesco pursues only through its Cat Rent Store operation in Switzerland." Ammann is the owner of Avesco, the dealer for Caterpillar construction machines in Switzerland.

The two companies will, however, retain close links, with Ammann's sales and marketing organisations in France, the UK and Russia still representing Yanmar.

Yanmar created a new European company, Yanmar Construction Equipment Europe S.A.S., on 1 September and said it planned to expand the range of products made at its Saint-Dizier plant in France. The facility can handle excavators from 0.5 to 10 t for the European market.

Yanmar said that having sole responsibility for the mini-excavator range would "make it possible for [Yanmar] to produce and market more of its own range here in Europe."

The two companies have worked together in Europe since 1979, when Ammann acted as dealer for Yanmar in Switzerland, France and Germany. The manufacturing and sales partnership was created as a response to anti-dumping lawsuits brought by Yanmar's European competitors and because the Yanmar products made it easier for Ammann to expand its dealer network.