A BASKET OF OPPORTUNITIES

Constantino Lannes (5th from the left) welcomes Ron Barlet and his crew from Bejac Corporation to the SENNEBOGEN family.

Bejac Corporation becomes SENNEBOGEN dealer for California

PLACENTIA, CA – Servicing niche markets with carefully chosen product lines has been a specialty for Bejac Corporation. As of April, the company has added SENNEBOGEN’s green line of purpose-built material handlers to its unique basket of machinery offerings.

Constantino Lannes, President of SENNEBOGEN North America, recently announced that Bejac Corporation has been appointed as the newest addition to the company’s growing distributor network for SENNEBOGEN. Bejac Corporation, headquartered in Placentia, will represent SENNEBOGEN products for the state of California from its five branches serving in San Diego, Los Angeles, Inland Empire, Sacramento, Redding and the Oakland Bay area.

Since the 1980s, Bejac has built its success by partnering with reputable manufacturers to offer sales, rental and service for a wide variety of construction and niche markets, choosing suppliers that focus on one product line to build an equipment mix that maximizes opportunities for its customers. “We have predominantly a single brand affiliation with most of our manufacturers,” explains Company President Ron Barlet. “What we try to do is strategically pick and choose single product lines from the best manufacturers and then match these together to support customers in the markets we serve. So while we are not everything to everybody, we are very focused in specializing in certain niche areas.”

With its fleet of excavators, wheel loaders, compactors, air compressors, demolition tools, forestry and logging equipment, and machine fed chippers and grinders, Bejac serves a wide variety of customers and applications that exclude it from being labeled as a traditional ‘dirt house.’ The markets it serves include material and scrap handling, C&D recycling operations, waste transfer stations, forestry operations, terminal facilities, demolition contractors, wood, steel, paper and grain mills, and cattle operations, in addition to traditional construction markets.

Complementing existing markets
In keeping with its strategy, the company is not strictly seeking to break new ground with its SENNEBOGEN line as much as it desires to further complement the markets it presently serves. “We currently do a fair amount of business in these markets. This is where we see the potential for a SENNEBOGEN machine whether it’s a multi-tool handler or a material handler. They are built for these types of applications,” he says. “The strategy is to focus on the niche industries to complement what we are already doing.”

A perfect fit
In this regard, SENNEBOGEN has provided the perfect fit with its purpose-built machines designed specifically for such applications. “Most manufacturers convert existing machines to a certain application, but for us to be successful in offering the services that we want to provide, it’s obviously easier to take a purpose-built machine that already has the features specific to the task and has proven itself rather than try to modify something that is less than perfect for the application.”

Combined with the latest Tier III engines and the unique hydraulic requirements for material handling, the SENNEBOGEN green line offers greater fuel efficiencies compared to competitive machines which is an added benefit of having a purpose-built unit. “California has the most stringent air quality rules, so the Tier III engine is really an important factor here because companies are upgrading their fleets and trying to get to stay compliant. From a sales perspective, the fuel efficiency of the Tier III engine along with the efficient use of hydraulics is a tremendous benefit over the competition,” says Barlet.

Bejac first initiated its relationship with SENNEBOGEN after it found itself bidding against the company. “After losing a couple of deals, we decided to find a company that had the right complement of machines, both track and rubber tired machines. That’s when we started looking at the top three manufacturers. Several of my dealer acquaintances across the country are SENNEBOGEN dealers and they gave the company very high marks. We found that there isn’t an application that we serve that SENNEBOGEN won’t fit into. That was part of the reason for seeking them. We are currently present in many of those segments,” says Barlet. He confirmed that this was in keeping with his overall strategy. “We looked at our customer base and looked at what SENNEBOGEN offered that would allow us to expand... it was a perfect fit. It’s easy to go to customers that you are already selling a few machines to every year and add one more item to the basket. While there will be many new customer opportunities, there is minimal pioneering to do from our perspective because we are already familiar with these markets.”

Barlet says marketing the new line will not be difficult as SENNEBOGEN has already carved out an excellent reputation. “There is positive familiarity with the product because SENNEBOGEN has done an excellent job promoting their brand and I think there is enough name recognition that it will make our sales efforts that much easier,” he says. From a service standpoint, Barlet says the company’s service technicians are amazed by how simple these machines are. “They are impressed by how clean the layout is for servicing, how the engine is mounted and by how well it is put together,” he says, adding the lack of a dependence on computers and electronics adds to their simplicity. “This is going to be a huge selling factor. In the extreme environments these machines will be working in, simpler is much better.”

Pushing accessibility
As a dealer, Bejac is very careful to align itself with manufacturers who can insure the back-up support it needs to provide the highest level of service to its customers and Barlet says this hinges on having an open line of communication, something that has already been established with SENNEBOGEN. “What I saw in SENNEBOGEN that I particularly liked is what I like to see in all of the manufacturers we deal with… that is having a relationship when we have questions that need answers, we can get right to the decision-makers,” he explains. “In these niche markets, you have to be extremely responsive. These are expensive machines that are typically front line units that can shut complete operations down if there is a problem so when we need support, communication is critical,” he says, adding that he promotes the same philosophy to his own employees. “We really push accessibility from both our staff and our customers and with SENNEBOGEN, they have already proven that this is their business model as well.”

While Bejac employees are eager to participate in SENNEBOGEN’s dealer training program for both sales and service, Barlet says they are equally eager to get these machines in front of their customers. “Since we are servicing specialty markets and because the product really fits into these niches, it gives us another opportunity to go out and market to the people we are already interacting with,” says Barlet. “We are very excited about having a bundle of features from SENNEBOGEN that we can offer our customers. We are ready to go!”

About SENNEBOGEN
SENNEBOGEN has been a leading name in the global material handling industry for more than 58 years. Based in Stanley, North Carolina, SENNEBOGEN LLC offers a complete range of purpose-built machines to suit virtually any material handling application. A growing network of distributors supports SENNEBOGEN sales and service across the Americas, ensuring the highest standard of professional machine support and parts availability.