Snorkel and Xtreme Manufacturing have opened Ahern Chile, the new sales and service provider for the companies in Latin America.
Based in Santiago, Ahern Chile is the latest location in the Ahern International distribution group, which also includes Ahern Australia, Ahern Japan, Ahern Deutschland, and Ahern Canada.
The Ahern International entities are focused on the distribution of Snorkel and Xtreme Manufacturing products, as well as the provision of spare parts and technical service. The Ahern International businesses do not offer equipment rental.
Led by Brody McFarland, VP of sales for Latin America for Xtreme Manufacturing and Snorkel, Ahern Chile made its first entry into the Latin American market at ConExpo Latin America in October 2015, where it showcased a range of Snorkel aerial work platforms and Xtreme telehandlers.
Following a strong level of interest at the show, Brody appointed Nicolas Pacifico as regional general operations manager in December 2015. Nicolas has a strong background in aerial work platform sales in the region, having previously led Haulotte's sales operations in Chile. That was followed by the appointment of Andre Mendonca as regional sales manager for Argentina, and Carlos Vegar as parts manager.
In March 2016, Ahern Chile made its first product sale to local customer Metalmar and leased a facility in Santiago on Chile Route 5, Chile’s longest highway. The facility includes more than 250sqm (2,690 sq. ft.) of modern office space, as well as 2,000sqm (21,527 sq. ft.) of workshop and warehouse space, including separate parts storage.
Following a short period of fit-out work, Ahern Chile opened the facility in June 2016, followed by the appointment of Matias Fuentas as office manager in October 2016, plus the investment in sales and service vehicles. The Ahern Chile warehouse is stocked with new Snorkel lifts and Xtreme telehandlers, ready for fast delivery to customers in Chile, and across Latin America.
Brody McFarland said: “Chile is the perfect location to establish our distribution for Latin America. This is a stable market, with an open trade environment that makes it easy to do business. Our investment in this market has been very well received by customers so far, and we have many possibilities for expanding our business here into sectors beyond rental, including industrial and mining.”
McFarland added: “Snorkel is already reasonably well established in Latin America, thanks to the work of our independent distributors, however Xtreme Manufacturing is a new brand in the market. We are fortunate that some of the regions, such as Argentina, already understand the value of high-capacity telehandlers within oil applications, so we already seeing a lot of interest in the larger Xtreme models."
McFarland also said that lower-capacity telehandlers commonly used within construction and utilities are still a fairly new concept across Latin America, but Xtreme is already working with some existing customers to demonstrate the safety and productivity benefits that telehandlers offer over truck cranes.
Matthew Elvin, CEO for Snorkel and Xtreme Manufacturing said, “The opening of Ahern Chile follows our business philosophy of ‘think global, act local’. This investment ensures that we are set up to not only sell the equipment, but also effectively support our Latin American customers on a local level.”
The grand opening event on Tuesday. Dec. 13, marked the official launch of Ahern Chile. More than 100 rental and end user customers from across Latin America traveled to Santiago for the event, which included machine demonstrations, an official ribbon cutting, and an evening of festivities.
Lift & Access is part of the Catalyst Communications Network publication family.
