Haulotte celebrates new North American headquarters

Haulotte North America celebrated the grand opening of its new corporate headquarters in Virginia Beach on March 23.

The 83,000-square-foot facility supports the company’s executive offices, customer sales and service support, training center, and distribution functions of spare parts and finished goods. Additionally, the customer care center will oversee parts fulfillment, warehousing, pre-delivery inspections and repairs. The previous Maryland facility was roughly 14,000 square feet.

Alexandre Saubot, chief operating officer of Haulotte Group, José Monfront, executive vice-president, Patrice Métairie, industrial director, Sébastien Martineau, chief financial officer and Philippe Noblet, corporate secretary, came from France to celebrate the grand opening. They were joined by the Virginia Beach mayor, William Sessoms, and major clients and customers from across the world.

“We have come here with a lot of ambition,” said Claude Fuger, managing director of Haulotte North America. "We are now better positioned to deliver outstanding products and provide the required sales and service support, along with the quality training that this facility was designed for. Our Virginia Beach facility now features the space and resources we had been looking for to maintain a competitive edge and to further demonstrate Haulotte Group's long-term commitment to North America."

The company’s new headquarters is home to an inventory of more than 7,000 parts, which the team on site ships around 110-250 of a day.

Since moving to Virginia Beach, container ship lead time has been cut in half, if not more, according to Lollie Bradford with the company.

“If equipment arrives in the port on a Friday, we will have units in the facility by Monday or Tuesday,” she said. “Previously, at our other location, it would take one to two weeks.”

“I enjoy to see that our efforts have a return on invest, we have a motivated team, who is customer focused, and fully involved in providing global solution to support the business of our customers,” Saubot said.

Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms said, “We are pleased to welcome Haulotte Group in our city. So far, the company has already created 44 jobs, which is good opportunity for the area.”

Haulotte said it has increased its workforce by 60 percent with the move from Maryland to Virginia Beach.

Customers from ReEquip Solutions, WesternOne, S&H Equipment plus many more also attended the event.