Molson closes Purfleet depot

Molson Holdings, a UK dealer for Kobelco and Fiat Kobelco, is closing its Purfleet depot and ceasing second-hand refurbishment activities at Avonmouth with 27 employees being made redundant.

According to Molson director Robin Powell, Molson’s UK-wide mobile service engineers will take care of Purfleet’s customers, while used trade-in equipment will be moved directly to auction houses.

“Last year we sold 760 new Kobelco machines and we want to concentrate fully on our core brands,” Powell said. “Obviously laying people off isn’t taken lightly, but we need to refocus and centralise our operations and concentrate on our core brands,” he added.

As well as continuing with its dealerships, Molson said it would however continue importing low-hour grey imports.

“We imported 200 used machines from a number of Japanese manufacturers last year,” Powell said. “But we will only continue with Kobelco products,” he added.

Molson claims it is Europe’s largest Kobelco dealer and had a turnover of £49.5m in 2003. “We’ve always experienced good year-on-year growth and this restructuring will help us continue this trend,” Powell said.