Italian crane provider Fassi Gru becomes part of Swedish timber crane manufacturer Cranab, with Fassi Group at Albino, Italy, becoming Cranab shareholder, in multi-stakeholder bid to create internationally competitive producer of forestry equipment

Aimee Bellah

ALBINO, Italy , December 16, 2013 (press release) – Fassi Gru becomes part of the Swedish company Cranab AB together with Z-forest AB, one of the largest investment funds controlled by the Swedish government aimed at the growth of the national industry.

The Fassi group at Albino (BG) becomes one of the main shareholders of Cranab AB, a Swedish company manufacturing timber cranes, leader in its sector, founded in 1963 by the brothers Jonsson, Rune and Allan.

Cranab AB has its headquarters in Vindeln not far from Umeå, 700 km north of Stockholm. The three production facilities, all located in the same area, are dedicated to the design and manufacture of forestry cranes.

Jointly with the addition of Fassi Gru to the corporate capital of the Swedish company, which already included, in addition to the Cranab brand, Slagkraft and Vimek (respectively specialists in forwarders/fellers and in small /medium sized tractors for harvesters) Cranab AB has acquired control of Bracke Forest AB. The latter is a machinery production company for the regeneration and the exploitation of forests, with its headquarters in Bräcke near Östersund (approximately halfway between Stockholm and Umeå), again in Sweden. Cranab AB, together with this subsidiary, has thus become a group of 200 employees, with a turnover of 350 million Swedish Krona (approximately 40 million Euro).

Thanks to this agreement, Fassi Gru and Cranab AB are creating an internationally competitive group that offers equipment and technology dedicated to the economic development of the forestry sector throughout its chain: from reforestation to the controlled exploitation of forests, including the logistics phase of handling of the raw material.

Fassi Gru S.p.A., after the investment made with Marrel, continues in the expansion of its business in a specific sector, namely that of equipment dedicated to the movement of timber, thus enhancing its range in the transportation sector with highly specialised machines.

“The choice of this partner was made to offer the international market the specific technology that Cranab AB provides through its quality product” says Giovanni Fassi, CEO of the Italian group, with its headquarters at Albino in the province of Bergamo. “The forestry sector is growing and will continue to do so in future. For this reason we wanted to contribute to the foundation of one of the most important and diversified groups in the forestry sector, in collaboration with highly specialised partners, and in a country with a vast technology applied to this context”.

“With this agreement we are adopting a more global approach with our new wide range of machinery linked to the forestry sector, driven by a greater demand for equipment suitable for sustainable environmental exploitation” comments Fredrik Jonsson, CEO of Cranab AB.

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.