Russian sales and rental company LTECH-Lifting Technology, is planning to renew its telehandler fleet with machines from the Italian manufacturer Merlo.

LTECH has been Merlo's Russian dealer for a year, at the same time buying 20 telehandlers for its own fleet, and now the company plans to invest further. LTECH's president Mikhail Malvinskiy said "At the moment we have several dozen telehandlers in our rental fleet. The units from Terex and Faresin are good and reliable machines, however, as their operation life comes to an end, we will renew the rental fleet and change them for Merlo machines.

"Analyzing the first year of cooperation with Merlo, we can say that Russian customers are very satisfied with Merlo machines and fully trust this brand. That's why we are increasing the scale of our cooperation."

At the beginning of 2012, with assistance from one of Russia's largest leasing companies, 16 more units were purchased. The majority are the Panoramic series with a 17m working height and 4t capacity, the company also acquired several Roto machines with working heights from 20m upwards and, a  first for the Russian market, a Panoramic series with a capacity of 12t.

 LTECH technicians have completed training courses on the Merlo machines, visiting the company in Italy and being visited by Merlo specialists in Russia. LTECH said it has bought a wide range of spare parts, diagnosic systems and special computer equipment.

"Our telehandlers work all over Russia: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Sochi, Krasnodar, Nizhny Novgorod and many other cities," said Mr Malvinskiy.  "In the near future we plan to expand our dealership network."