In a significant development for the US market, Maeda announced during ConExpo it would be changing the way it services the market. Duane Lloyd, Sales, and Service Engineer for Maeda America spoke exclusively to Cranes and Lifting about the development.
“Originally, Maeda had a distributor which was called Maeda USA, and from what I understand, they were doing a good job. They were bringing units in, but the volume wasn’t where it needed to be for the goals that Maeda Seisakusho desired,” Duane said.
“My understanding is that Maeda Seisakusho spoke with our Chief Executive Officer, Tak Inoue, and asked him if he would be interested in setting up a wholly owned subsidiary distributorship as Maeda America. I originally met the Maeda America team in August of 2022 in my role as National Director of Crane Operations for Don Ahern at Ahern Rentals. Don Ahern was approached by the Maeda America team because they were interested in doing business in America with Ahern Rentals. Mr Ahern approached me and a President and Vice President of his other companies to evaluate Maeda America and if they are ready to do business with Ahern as a new startup company.
“My evaluation for Mr Ahern at the time was, ‘No. They’re not ready to do business in America with Ahern.’ My evaluation of the equipment was very positive. I saw the product at the 2020 ConExpo, but they were missing a few things including not having battery operated units, lacking good distributorship and after-sales support, and not having a strong parts holdings. “Maeda Seisakusho truly listened to the feedback from its end users and customers here in the US and applied that to the equipment,” said Duane.
Maeda Japan took all that information from end users, mechanics, and people that would be using the equipment in America, and they engineered this information and fed it back into the machines to make them more usable for the US market.
“The fact that Maeda Seisakusho really listened to the end users, is very important to me and that helped me decide to join them. Maeda listens to end users, listens to dealers, listens to distributors, takes that information in, and puts that into the machines. You don’t see that a lot with other manufacturers,” said Duane.
“Engineers have a plan; they have the design and they’re going to go with it no matter what. Maeda Japan does not do that. They really look at the big picture, and they put that into the machines which is very nice. They design and manufacture excellent products and I’m very happy to be on board.
“I’ve only been with the company for a little over a month, and they flew me to Japan to meet and congratulate me on joining the team and to see the factory firsthand. In terms of the US set up, my understanding is that we’ve absorbed the dealers that Maeda USA originally set up, and we’re starting to grow by bringing more new dealers on board.
“Setting up a dealer network nationally in the United States I feel is the best route to take, to penetrate the market this will also give Meada the support for the Maeda Cranes throughout the country. One of our goals at Meada America is to support our dealers through after sales support, sales and marketing training, service training and assisting by identifying markets in their areas. Additionally, we had training last week here in Vegas, and we invited a number of dealers to attend. The dealers worked well together and expressed their excitement about the new models with Meada America supporting their dealer network. After the training concluded we took the dealers out to dinner to continue networking and building those relationships.” said Duane.
Currently, Duane is working on developing marketing and sales, service, and parts training as well as operational training.
“With Ahern Rentals, I was able to take an underutilised fleet and turn it into something that was profitable and my goal with Maeda America is to do the same thing. We’re going to do that through training, support for the dealers and after-product support. We are going to be there for our dealers.
“We’ll be developing training classes, including sales training, to help the dealers. Many of them are crane companies but it’s a different market with the mini cranes, it’s a different mindset. So, with my experience with mini cranes, I’m going to be able to help our dealers find the markets, find the customers that are going to be buying or renting these cranes which will help them grow. That’s going to be part of the sales training and the service training is going to be there to support them.
Duane goes on to explain where the Maeda product fits into the US market.
“One of the things that made my decision to come to Maeda America and to help with growth for Maeda Seisakusho is the engineering that we talked about a little bit earlier. Maeda engineers really listen to the people that are going to be using those units and have implemented the feedback into the product. That’s going to be big for us in America.
“The end user friendliness of the Maeda machine is a major positive. You just turn that machine on and it’s ready to operate. Other brands have their own operating systems and they’re a little more complicated in some respects. Still a great product, just more complicated.
“The end user potential for Maeda is huge, especially in the rental market. With my role with other brands, I would spend four or five hours training guys and then go to job sites with them so they can learn more about the machines in a hands-on manner.
“There’s a lot of extra work that had to happen for that to be successful. With the Maeda brand, if we get the training right and get the dealers set up in the right manner, with full-service capabilities, and with the usability of the machines, it’s going to be a much smoother process. For me, what makes Maeda stand apart is obviously the support from Maeda Seisakusho, and what they’ve done with the products to improve the end user capabilities is outstanding.
Anthony Heeks and Michael Cawston from Pace Cranes were at ConExpo to share their knowledge and experience with the Maeda product.
“They’re great guys and it was a pleasure spending time with them. I believe having them here at ConExpo shows that globally Maeda has support for its equipment. Anthony and Michael have a lot of good ideas that I think will help grow things here in America with the Maeda product. And I think there’s a lot that we can learn from their experience with Maeda products, and we can bring some of their ideas to the US market.
“Americans have a different mindset, a different way of looking and doing things, but if it works and it’s profitable, then we are prepared to run with it. So, I’m looking forward to working with the Pace guys and learning from them, and hopefully giving them some ideas that might help their approach to the Australian market.”
Anthony Heeks, Managing Director for Pace Cranes, says that he is also looking forward to developing the relationship with Meada America.
“We’ll be sharing a lot of information on our success and the ways we’ve found that success, the different industries and different markets we’ve targeted, where the applications are, and some of the ‘out-of-the-box ‘applications our customers have found for their Maedas.
“We’ll share our marketing strategies and what has worked for us in Australia. We’ll certainly be sharing all that information to Maeda America because at the end of the day, as Duane says, it’s all about success for Maeda,” said Anthony.
During ConExpo Maeda America displayed a number of products including the latest additions to the MK Series. The MK3053C is the latest development in the knuckle boom range. Michael Cawston, National Sales Manager for Pace Cranes explains more.
“Maeda has been developing this knuckle boom style crane for some time, and there are a number of models in the range. Maeda has spent time developing the MK3053C to ensure the new model ticks all the boxes,” he said.
“It’s a cross between the MC305 and an MC285, which means it is a very compact crane with a small footprint and small ‘packed-up’ dimensions like the MC285. It can still fit through a doorway, but it has more reach than the MC305, being able to get up to that 17m mark. This is a game changer for Maeda in the small crawler crane market.”
In terms of powering the crane, the MK3053C is available in three versions including a standard diesel machine, a diesel electric option and a full lithium battery electric battery version. Michael explains the remote control is standard.
“The design of the set-up for the whole machine is managed by the remote control unit which comes as standard. This means the machine can be tracked and the outriggers controlled by the remote. The outriggers swivel by a hydraulic cylinder which means you don’t have to swing the outriggers out manually; it’s all handled by the remote,” he said.
“The MK3053C is a user-friendly machine and it is also a lot simpler for the operator, to the point where the operator doesn’t have to put pins in or pull them out. Another great feature with the outriggers is there’s no pinning required for the various angles.
“The machine can be set up on any angle, or the outriggers can be set up on any angle without the need to insert a pin. This is standard across the Maeda range. The winch is optional, but we’ll import units with the winch as standard unless there’s a special request for a crane without it,” he said.