In conversation: Liebherr–Canada celebrates 50 years

Liebherr-Canada celebrating its 50th year is made doubly sweet by coinciding with the Liebherr Group's 75-year anniversary. Earlier in 2024, I had the opportunity to sit down with the Liebherr-Canada leadership team: outgoing managing director, Tim Petersen; CFO Paul Robson; and new managing director, Tom Juric. In a far-ranging conversation, we reflected on the origins of Liebherr-Canada, current industry trends, and how the company is set to tackle its next 50 years.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The First 50 years

Ken Singer Congratulations on 50 years. Can you tell me a little about how things started at Liebherr-Canada?

Tim Petersen When Liebherr-Canada was founded in 1973, we were one of the first mixed sales companies in the Liebherr Group formed under the guidance of Mr. Willi Liebherr. The model brings all the different divisions together, acting as one, finding the best solution for our customers, offering the proper product, and looking after that product with excellent service and support. That was the whole idea behind Liebherr-Canada and is the vision of the Liebherr family. Customer Service has always been the differentiator here in Canada, which we've always focused upon heavily with our customers.

Paul Robson Canada is a unique marketplace. It always has had incredible opportunities, and that's what Liebherr embraced early on. We have an extensive product portfolio which fit this marketplace, and that's what Liebherr excels at, providing solutions to our customers. Tim has really lived that journey of how we brought products into the market. In the early days we were less than 50 people, primarily concentrated on excavators, and we didn't have mobile cranes, we didn't have foundation equipment. They've all come in at a series of timelines and that's what working with customers allows us to build on. The more depth we have in our products, the greater the experience we have with our customers.

TP The key item for us at Liebherr-Canada is the service we bring and the direct from factory to customer model, without all the middlemen. That's always been a key selling point for us. We're representing the factory, we're representing the owners; we're direct to the customer, and it's always an advantage when you take out the middleman.

PR For an OEM, that's unique in Canada. There are no other direct OEMs. We bought the steel, we cut the steel, we designed it, we built it. For technicians, or for our customers, that's a straight line back to the R&D, design, and production and the technology that Liebherr brings to the marketplace. That is a unique factor that we have really capitalized on to create enduring partnerships.

TP Our strength, from the beginning right till now, and it will continue to be so, has always been our staff and our people, the commitment from our people to the customer, and the commitment from the Liebherr family. That differentiates us from some of our competitors, and that's been noticed by our customers. It's always different when you deal with Liebherr. There's a very strong commitment from our employees to the customer and to the company, that's always been our strength in the past, and that will continue to be so.

Tom Juric If you look at our hyper successful product categories, the reason they're successful is because we built them with the industry, with the customer. We had some foundational customers that helped us to develop this product portfolio. The culture around building, not just a great asset from an engineering standpoint, but something that can be used, serviced, and utilized in the marketplace, fundamentally, comes down to good service, good people. The advantage that we have compared to a dealer is that we are very patient. We don't take a quarter-by-quarter look, we look generationally. We have our own pressures and our own responsibilities and expectations, but not to the point where short-term decisions end up impacting long-term outcomes and goals for our customers.

PR Close customer tie-ins have helped define how we bring products to market. For example, our rough-terrain crane models were specifically designed and inbuilt for this marketplace. We can really spot an opportunity and can very successfully develop the technology to deliver a solution for the right outcome. One of Liebherr's strengths is this ability to listen to its market, listen to its customers, and then provide the correct solutions.

TJ We're evolving from just listening to actively seeking customer input. We will go out, actively seek the input from the industry, from our customers, and even people that aren't necessarily our customers today. We seek their opinion and we seek their input to improve our products and services — call it the Liebherr experience.

Looking ahead to the next 50 years

KS Technology, digitalization, and sustainability have been significant drivers in the construction industry across all product categories. How is Liebherr responding?

TJ If we look at the green space, the transition toward zero emission, the speed at which the industry has gone from conversation to proof of concept, and now field validation, it has been nothing like we've ever seen in a construction technology space. It has been so rapid. When we look at what Liebherr's fundamental principles are on most of its equipment, we realize there's no silver bullet to displace the diesel. Diesel has been an exceptionally critical fuel for the industry, and we've optimized it to within an inch of its life. To offset that with a direct substitute is proving to be difficult.

So what Liebherr has done, particularly in the mining space, is assess a range of potential solutions that converge around three core concepts. One is battery/electrification. It exists, we can generate it, we can work with it, we understand it. Then we move into alternative fuels in product segments where, having gone to the market and talked with our customers or potential customers, we realized that not everybody has access to green electricity. Hydrogen is another area of interest; it's transportable and we can generate it cleanly. Fuel cells are still in their infancy — that's probably the third option.

We've been electrifying large excavators for nearly 50 years with millions of operating hours. Electrification via tether cable is nothing new to us. We are investing heavily into the battery/electric area. The investment, not just by our group, but as an industry, in looking for the next breakthrough in battery technology is astronomical.

People want a solution, but they want us to come up with it. But we are only one part of the equation. There's a whole infrastructure that needs to be considered prior to whatever form of energy can be delivered into our vehicles. That's stirred the concept of modularity because as much as people do want to electrify, the reality of the situation is we don't have enough green capacity on the grid nor the infrastructure.

In mining, Liebherr has embarked upon the modularity concept. The products that we make today have to be capable of accepting the green technologies of tomorrow. So what we say to our customers is, if you have a requirement to decarbonize at some point in the future, what you can do is invest in our product, service, and technology today, conventionally with diesel power, and then in the future, when the infrastructure of alternative energy generation is ready, we can convert with you. That requires modularity and being an energy agnostic or a power agnostic OEM. Diesel will still factor in some way, but obviously the powertrains of the future will be some mixture of battery-, electric-, and hydrogen-based. This is one of the biggest technical engineering challenges that we've ever had.

KS The earthmoving division has been a big focus the last few years. Where do you see the opportunities in the years ahead?

TP We do earthmoving with good customers that trust us and work with us for the long term. We've never been the type of company to go after huge highway projects and try to sell a hundred pieces a year. We're not trying to have the largest market share of earthmoving; we will continue to bring high-technology products, whether that be with a hydrostatic drive or all the different systems and the ruggedness and the uniqueness, for instance in our telehandlers, which offer far more flexibility and safety features on the job site.

When we talk about electrification, we're starting with our smaller wheel loaders, and it's only a matter of time until our telehandlers and other products follow suit as well. That's where the market's going; by 2035 we're going to be astounded by what can be electrified.

PR As we brought new products in, like telehandlers and the TA230 ADT, we have more opportunities to work with new customers who are looking for a more rounded portfolio of equipment. The products are constantly being designed based on customer feedback and this drives the next model, features, or improvements.

TP Liebherr's been an innovator throughout my whole career, whether it's our hydrostatic drives or engines that burn much less fuel than our competitors', it's really exciting to watch the company keep evolving into this sustainable, high-tech producer of equipment.

KS How are you approaching the shortage of skilled operators and technicians in the industry?

TJ Yes, there is a shortage of high-quality, experienced, and motivated operators and technicians across the country; it's an extreme situation. While we believe that technology will alleviate some of those pressures, we're still probably a generation away from automation being a viable alternative to people. The industry is not training enough people, we are conscious of the part we play in attracting people to the industry. What we do is very complex, very sophisticated, and it can be a well-paying career.

Technology absolutely has to work for us, not against us. So, when talking about things like electrification, when we're talking about these alternate fuels and the digitalization of the industry, as Paul has mentioned, we have to ensure that labour touchpoints are minimized. Because if we go making something that we cannot support, we may as well not start. Liebherr has invested a great deal of time and resources into how we make our equipment and our services user friendly and as light as possible from a labour ratio to ensure that we are not creating things that people can't service.

We have an extremely unique business here, when you talk to our people, they want to work for us, they are genuinely excited, to be part of our group, part of our organization, and we're the brand. There's no doubt that one of the biggest business inhibitors that the industry is facing, is the lack of technically focused people in the next 10 years. That is our biggest risk.

PR We are practically doubling in size and revenue every five years, and that requires people, more products require more technical staff in the field, and we are working very hard to model out that career path. Not a job, a career. A highly valued, highly technical role. It's on everybody in our industry to promote and to really demonstrate value to the young emerging workforce and say that this is a whole career pathway that opens up for them. We're moving from a very mechanically focused/hydraulic focus into electronics/diagnostics focus, which I think will make that a much more attractive career path for people.

TP One of the key aspects of Liebherr, in all my time with the company, is that it has maintained its core values. Everything we do now and into the future is about our customers and about giving them the highest quality at the right price. Liebherr will never change. The third generation of the family is fully committed to the core values, and I think the fourth generation will be the same way. They're thinking long-term into the future, like Tom said, and that's the exciting part of the company. It really is.

KS What is the most exciting opportunity in the years ahead?

TP I think the biggest opportunity in Canada for Liebherr over the next five years is mining, without a question. It's super exciting.

PR The earthmoving division is a high-growth opportunity for us, which we've been sustaining year on year; the product portfolio is now more complete. But we should not neglect the highly successful products, such as crane technology, which we have to defend in our market. From a pure growth perspective, where we see huge potential is definitely the mining field.

TJ What excites me is that we are no longer a curiosity and people recognize us as more than just exceptional cranes. As Paul said, we are very, very strong in our cranes, and we must defend our cranes at all costs. But the beautiful thing is that now, as we've said, earthmoving is in a very similar position. As Tim said previously, we'll never be like our competitors, but we do have a suite of customers and a suite of products that we will absolutely defend. What really excites me is the fact that we have matured to a genuine contender but still maintain the ethos and the entrepreneurialism that the Liebherr Group represents. The next 50 years is all about customer service: it's at our core, it's foundational. It gets us out of bed in the morning and tucks us in at night. HEG

Tim Petersen, former managing director, Liebherr–Canada
Tim started at Liebherr–Canada in 1986 with the earthmoving division. During his time with Liebherr-Canada, notable achievements include starting the Crane division in 1995, followed by the Foundations, Mining, and Maritime divisions. Tim took over as managing director in 2015.

Paul Robson, CFO, Liebherr–Canada
Paul has been with Liebherr–Canada for 12 years, previously working with Liebherr Group for 10 years in the UK and Ireland. Working from a corporate finance background, he has helped grow the company bigger, broader, and more appealing across the Canadian landscape.

Tom Juric, managing director, Liebherr–Canada
Tom has been with the Liebherr Group for 14 years. Prior to joining Liebherr–Canada he was the executive general manager for sales and marketing for Liebherr–Australia. In 2020 he had the opportunity to head the mining division in Canada. Earlier this year he became managing director, succeeding Tim Petersen.