Bobcat, one of the world's leading manufacturers of construction equipment, has announced the opening of a new distribution and spare parts centre for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) operations at Halle in Germany.

Currently, Bobcat has around 180 dealers in 75 EMEA countries. By investing in the state-of-the-art facility in Halle, Bobcat will ensure the fastest service for the company’s dealers and their customers, said a statement from the company.

As a result of a multi-million-euro investment and utilising the very latest in warehousing and sorting technology, the new facility will ensure the speedy delivery of spare parts and other components to dealers and customers throughout the region.

Over time, the Bobcat dealer and customer bases in the EMEA region have grown rapidly, resulting in a significant increase in their needs and expectations, it added.

Located close to Leipzig Airport, the new 43,000-sq-m Bobcat Aftermarket Service Center covers an area equivalent to 14 full-sized football pitches. Over 150,000 different spare parts and components are stocked in the new centre.

These are delivered from Bobcat factories (in US and Europe) and certified suppliers from around the world and made available directly to dealers and their customers in EMEA, said the statement.  

With a current fill rate of 95 per cent, the new distribution centre has already exceeded the performance level planned for its start-up.

The centre is also responsible for supplying aftermarket products to the Parts Distribution Center (PDC) in Dubai in the UAE. The Dubai PDC supplies spare parts to Bobcat and Doosan Portable Power dealers in the Middle East and East Africa, it stated.

In addition to the excellent connections provided by Leipzig Airport, the door-to-door proximity with the DHL main European delivery centre and the motorway network on its doorstep, Halle was chosen as the location for the new building because of the strategic importance of the German market for Bobcat, said a top official.

"With the high investment in the new distribution centre, we are also very clearly committed to EMEA as a region," remarked Paulo Florindo, the aftermarket senior director at Doosan Bobcat EMEA.
 
"The new centre will enable us to supply our customers even faster and more flexibly with everything they need. With 130 new jobs created, we are confident we will provide the best service," he added.

Customers and dealers alike are impressed by the efficiency of the new spare parts centre.

Johannes Vlach, the managing director of Marep, the Bobcat dealer in Northern Germany, said: "We at Marep have been Bobcat dealers for over 10 years now and have most of the parts we need in our warehouse."

"But sometimes it happens that two or three customers simultaneously register their machines for the same day for review and so it is good that we can order parts from the warehouse in Halle overnight by express, in order to have them the next morning, to continue the work needed as usual," noted Vlach.

Alessandra Silvagni, marketing and vommunications manager at DMO, the Bobcat dealer in Northern Italy, said: "Thanks to the continuous support of the Bobcat aftermarket team, we have grown as a company, but above all we have been able to create a loyal and stable customer base."

"By improving the timing of parts delivery, which today we are able to provide in 24 hours, we have met the ever-increasing needs of our customers," he added.

"The new distribution centre is another step in enhancing our customer service. The high availability of original spare parts guarantees customers a fast delivery of required products and the least possible downtime," stated Florindo.

"We will continue to work on improving our customer service, because customer satisfaction is our greatest asset which, together with our high product quality, forms the basis for our success," he added.-TradeArabia News Service