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Speaking at the opening of the Baltar plant, Glen Tellock, CEO of The Manitowoc Company, said the new plant was more than just a factory. “We are extremely proud to open this new facility and strengthen our presence in the important Iberica market,” he said. “Two of our core goals are to achieve manufacturing excellence and differentiate ourselves through customer proximity. That means establishing premium manufacturing processes and providing close and dedicated sales and service support. You will find both here at Baltar. “Our core value of continuous innovation has resulted in three new models being produced in Portugal these past three years. That has caused to an upsurge in demand and we are adjusting our manufacturing capability accordingly,” Tellock said. “We have also invested heavily in customer service and sales provision to ensure we have the on-the-ground support our customers deserve. We feel that combined with a customer-driven innovation policy, we are positioned to defend our place as a true market leader in the lifting industry.” The Baltar plant will produce Potain’s MC, MCT and MDT ranges working with the Fanzeres factory. Operations at the two facilities are split into upstream and downstream functions. The upstream operations – the majority of cutting and welding – will take place at Baltar. The downstream operations – the painting, assembly, testing and shipping – will take place at Fanzeres. This split enables Manitowoc to further improve quality as both areas of production require different skills, levels of cleanliness, flow management and technology. The MC, MCT and MDT cranes produced in Portugal are popular in EMEA and beyond, and their designs are ideally suited to contractors both locally and in markets as far away as the Americas. The plant will employ over 100 people in all areas including production, sales and administration as well as customer service. Manitowoc Crane CARE forms a large part of the Baltar plant’s activities and it will be a major distribution point for spare parts as well as EMEA’s Center of Excellence for the EnCORE program for repair and refurbishment. Philippe Cohet, executive vice president of Manitowoc Crane Group for EMEA, said there were three main points to the manufacturing facility. “First, productivity. Demand for cranes is high so this new plant will help reduce current delivery times. But more importantly, it establishes a solid long-term production base in Europe,” he said. “Second, quality. We always believe we can improve the quality of our cranes and we have processes in place to do that and also to strengthen the Potain brand further. Third, safety. We have a strong culture of safety within our organization and that will be extended here.”
About The Manitowoc Company
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News Release
