Urbanisation and sustainability drive market growth
As a global player with sales to over 120 countries, market conditions for the Group vary by geographical region and customer sectors. The Group’s vertical access solutions and services are tailored to meet these different end-market requirements.
The Group has specialised in vertical access solutions for professional use, with rack-and-pinion and traction-based technologies for elevator systems and platforms. The Group’s façade access portfolio also includes certain hydraulic technology.
The Group is well-positioned to take advantage of important, global macro-economic trends in both mature as well as emerging markets which form the basis for market growth: demographics, productivity and sustainability.
Customers
The customer base is diverse and fragmented with a few, large regional and many local players for all business units except Wind whose customer base is more consolidated. Customers operate over a diverse range of industrial, commercial and construction sectors and their needs vary depending on application and geographical areas.
Market
End markets include the construction sector and essentially all industrial sectors that need efficient and safe mobile vertical access solutions and construction hoists.
Facade Access
The division’s customers are public enterprises, property owners, construction companies and property management companies, as well as infrastructure owners and developers. Sales of new equipment are focused on general contractors for large-scale construction or infrastructure projects. They require a strong offering from a supplier that can install complex access solutions reliably and cost efficiently. The services are provided to customers who own or manage properties and other infrastructure.
Construction
Alimak holds a strong global position, while Scanclimber is well-established in the Nordic market, among others. Customers include construction contractors and companies that rent equipment to end customers in the construction and civil engineering sector. A growing area is also sales of used equipment that has been refurbished and upgraded. Core markets are Europe, North America and Australia. In new emerging markets in the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Africa, the division collaborates with local distributors.
Height Safety & Productivity Solutions
Demand is driven by trends such as industrialisation, higher safety standards and requests for high productivity and sustainable solutions. The end customer base is diverse and includes such sectors as energy, construction, industry, infrastructure and telecom. Products and equipment are sold to both distributors and end customers, where distributors account for the largest volumes. Via this broad network, the division reaches customers in 120 countries.
Industrial
Core markets are Europe followed by North America, Asia and Australia. The diverse customer base includes the oil and gas industry, marine sector, ports, the petrochemical industry, power plants, the cement and concrete industry, mining and infrastructure. There are a few players in the market for rack and pinion elevators, where Alimak Group holds a world-leading position. Traction elevators are a niche product for Alimak and mainly delivered to offshore and marine sectors.
Wind
The largest customer groups are Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), wind tower manufacturers and wind farm owners. The division’s bespoke solutions are helping to increase productivity and workplace safety for customers, which makes wind power more competitive. The OEM market is dominated by about ten companies, while well over a hundred companies are building wind turbine towers. OEMs make up the most important customer group, and account for about 65 percent of sales.
Service
Service demand in our divisions is affected mainly by the size of the installed base of Alimak Group’s equipment. The business is generally more resilient to fluctuations in the markets than sales of new products.
With many players participating in the market, the Group’s service offering competes by providing customers with innovation and support that is unparalleled in the industry, through local presence combined with global capabilities.