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Chinese manufacturer Zoomlion offers a complete range of machinery from all industry sectors, but with a particular focus on developing the production, quality and sales of its mobile cranes division.
“We are spreading all over the world,” says Hongyuan (Lion) Li .
Lion, who has extensive experience in the industry, is a major component of those renewed efforts, in his new role as General Manager of Zoomlion for Australia and New Zealand.
“When driving from city to city in Australia, as a part of my role, I’ve visited Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and I’ve noticed that mobile cranes are everywhere; it feels like mobile cranes are around each corner on major construction sites,” says Lion.
“Last year, our total sales revenue in Australia and New Zealand region was more than triple than the previous year, so that attracted a lot more attention from headquarters.”
“Zoomlion sent me here to put a lot of effort into procuring more local sales, plus developing the local channels and the service partners, and building our own service qualities,” he says.
That has led to Zoomlion’s business strategy of opening dealership branches in key Australian markets, which Lion said was an exciting opportunity for the company.
“We developed more dealerships here locally with experienced crane personnel who are very capable of introducing our products,” he said.
With branches now open in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, Lion says that the Zoomlion team has diverse experience, offering advice on heavy lifting, crane sales and repair to assist customers.
Zoomlion Western Australia Sales Manager, Gary Robertson, has seen the industry develop in the past 10-to-15 years and values the power of diversity in influencing strong sales goals.
Gary says there is plenty of scope for exciting growth and opportunity in the local crawler crane market. His mission is to demonstrate that Zoomlion cranes offer high quality and can meet the demands of numerous projects throughout the state.
“The fact that it’s a growing brand within a growing industry does at times present its challenges, but what motivates me the most and gets me up in the morning is the knowledge that I can play a part in helping make the Zoomlion products explode onto the Australian market,” says Gary.
“Zoomlion products are gaining traction, and our momentum is increasing significantly,” he adds.
“There are noticeable improvements in both sales as well as technology, this coupled with Zoomlion’s push towards sustainable development of their products such as the world’s first pure electric crawler crane, all makes for a very promising future”
Gary’s local know-how and experience on the ground provides him with a strong business sense, relating to the crane industry and specialist knowledge to best suit customer needs.
He joins what Lion says is a “very dynamic and diversified cultural platform” at Zoomlion in Australia, with many of the staff of Chinese origin.
“We’ve had many staff members jump onboard within two years and have brought different cultures to this platform,” Lion says.
“In my opinion, if a platform can contain different backgrounds of people, you can just simply imagine this is a very good platform and it becomes very diversified.”
Diversification in the crane industry helps provide a multiple perspective on how to best solve a problem, as well as enabling strong communication as between several diversified parties, Lion says.
“I’m very proud that mobile cranes and Zoomlion are strongly competing among the three other big Chinese crane brands,” Lion says.
Making its mark
For Lion’s and Gary’s colleague, Zoomlion Sales Manager WA Barry Zang, the growing regard local buyers have for Zoomlion cranes is equally rewarding.
Barry says he enjoys watching Zoomlion crawler cranes, like the ZCT1500V633 and the ZCT300V4322, make their mark on international soil.
“There’s something really satisfying about seeing the massive crawler machines in action, knowing I played a part in getting them there, that’s what I enjoy most for this job,” he says.
Auston Chen, a Zoomlion Sales Representative in NSW, agrees, saying he is thoroughly enjoying the opportunities the company is providing him with.
“This job is very exciting for me because I come from international business and marketing major, but I haven’t really delved into this industry before, so this has opened opportunities up for me,” he says.
Auston’s skills with cranes and marketing combine to provide specialist knowledge of Zoomlion cranes which allows him to work with customers to provide positive outcomes.
His ability to live out his dream by working in an industry he enjoys energises him every day as he becomes a valuable asset for the fast-growing Zoomlion.
“It’s always a challenge to find work in highly regarded roles within this industry and I’m glad I’ve got this wonderful opportunity pursue my dream; I’ve been able to reconnect with my study and experience.”