BKL to distribute Sáez towers

Alexander Volz, BKL owner and chairman of the advisory board, left, with Laura Canovas Sáez, CEO at Sáez Group

German tower and mobile crane company BKL and Spanish tower crane manufacturer Grúas Sáez have agreed a distribution deal for Germany and Austria.

BKL will be the exclusive dealer for Sáez in these two European countries. All tower crane models are covered in the agreement. Sáez manufactures tower cranes up to 36 tonnes capacity as flat top and luffing jib types. It also manufactures self erecting tower cranes, including one with a telescopic lattice tower.

“In Grúas Sáez we have found a strong partner, one that meets our exacting quality requirements in terms of machines and service. The co-operation is helping to enhance BKL’s construction crane portfolio and is part of our successful growth strategy for the European market,” said Alexander Volz, BKL owner and chairman of the advisory board.

For the manufacturer based in Murcia, Laura Canovas Sáez, CEO, commented, “Grúas Sáez has been a global player for decades. As a well-established dealer, BKL’s support guarantees the Sáez brand the best possible conditions to gain a greater foothold on the German and Austrian markets.”

BKL and Sáez are each about 50 years old and it will be two second generation family-owned companies coming together.

“It will continue our work from the last five years where we have already been working with Sáez,” Jӧrg Hegestweiler, BKL chief executive officer, told ICST. “We have found it to be a very good product. Sáez can easily and quickly fulfil specialist requirements of customers.”

Hegestweiler anticipates sales primarily will be of the flat top models rather than the luffers.

Sáez said, “With BKL Baukran Logistik GmbH as our official number one distributor, we are able to expand our business and to continue to expand our presence in markets that have so far been largely untapped. We remain true to our principles of guarantee and quality. By joining forces and exchanging information on an ongoing basis, we are able to identify the immediate needs of our customers, specific to their strategic location.”

Rental is the majority of BKL’s business and it has a fleet around 500 tower cranes, plus more than 100 wheeled mobiles. Most of the towers are flat tops in the 50 to 80 metre jib range. It used to follow a strategy of sticking to one brand of crane but broadened that approach in 2010 and began buying cranes from multiple manufacturers. In 2018 it reduced the number of crane brands in its fleet.

BKL also represents Italian manufacturer of hydraulic self erecting tower cranes Cattaneo.