Global lifting and handling company Palfinger has developed a customer-oriented aftersales strategy – focusing on digital integration, organisational structure, and profitability for sustainable growth. The transformation was supported by consultants from H&Z.
Palfinger is a technological provider in lifting and handling solutions. The European-originated company operates in over 130 countries, with 30 production sites and more than 12,000 employees. Its portfolio includes cranes, hook lifts, platforms, and digital service solutions – serving industries from construction to marine. In 2024, Palfinger generated a record revenue of €2.36 billion.
Following promising growth, the firm set out to scale its after sales business as a core pillar of its growth strategy. The opportunity was clear, with Palfinger’s performance highly competitive – and with aftersales profitability already showcasing its critical contribution to Palfinger’s overall profitability.
Looking ahead, it aimed to shift from fragmented service operations to a customer-centric, scalable, and profitable after sales business worldwide. But to pull that off, it would need the support of external experts – reaching out to consultants from H&Z as a result.
An account of the project on H&Z Management Consulting’s website recalls, “Together with our colleagues at rpc, The Retail Performance Company, we led a holistic strategy review of Palfinger’s existing after sales operations. Using our Strategy House framework, we then structured the work around four critical clusters for a successful after sales business: governance, network, people, and digital integration.”
Key steps of the project began with conducting expert interviews and describing best practice scenarios, and identifying maturity gaps and proposing “design to fit” concepts. The consultants then worked to design an ‘After Sales Strategy House’, integrating already existing customer endeavours, before structuring an implementation roadmap built around organizational enablement, retail performance and digital integration.
The experts add, “Rather than deliver isolated recommendations, we laid the strategic outline for a comprehensive operating model embedding customer-centricity, profitability, and overall dealer/retail performance.”
Results
Palfinger AG now has a clear strategic blueprint for transforming its after sales business into a global growth engine with “a data based rationale why aftersales is an attractive business case”, according to H&Z. This includes a best practice based strategy house what elements are mission critical, and an experience based roadmap proposal how to move on.
Giving testimony on the work, Gerhard Sturm, senior vice president for global sales and service at Palfinger, notes, “H&Z and rpc didn’t just give us a strategy – they gave us clarity, confidence, and concrete tools to lead our after sales transformation globally. Their external perspective was both challenging and inspiring – exactly what we needed to lift after sales operations to the next level.”
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