Kiesel GmbH celebrates its 20th year as a Hitachi dealer

Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe) NV (HCME) offers its congratulations to German dealer, Kiesel, on its 20th anniversary of working with the Hitachi brand. Kiesel is the exclusive Hitachi supplier of Hitachi construction machinery in Germany, Austria and Poland, and the two businesses are celebrating their continued partnership in 2023.

An ever-evolving business

A Hitachi dealer since June 2003, Kiesel became the authorised HCME distributor for the whole of Germany two years later. The company has a huge network of sub-dealers, located across the country, and holds a leading position in the German market.

Since 2005, Kiesel has been hugely successful in strengthening the reputation of the brand in Germany and the Hitachi market share for construction machinery has doubled. The two companies remain committed to building further on this success in the coming years. Most recently, they introduced the Kenki Technology Group – a joint venture to develop zero-emissions construction equipment and construction technology for the European market.

A family-owned success

The dealer is named after founder Helmut Kiesel, who established the company in 1958 in Weingarten. In 1984, he passed ownership of the company to his sons, Toni, Rainer and Jochen. Today, Kiesel is based in Baienfurt, and has 1,200 employees and 45 branches across Europe. Despite its incredible growth, it still considers its sales and service network as a part of “one big family”.

Before making its first agreement with HCME, the family-run business had already established a strong reputation in Germany for selling and servicing material handling systems and construction machinery. When Hitachi established a sales network in the country, Kiesel President Toni Kiesel understood the importance of asserting Hitachi into the market as a premium brand.

A partnership was formed when Toni Kiesel contacted Hitachi directly, pitching his ideas for operations in Germany, to rival the competition. “By adopting a tried-and-tested sales and service strategy, we were soon selling more machines in the south than the other 28 dealers combined!” he explains.

Kiesel’s product support specialism, combined with Hitachi’s reliable equipment, is what kickstarted these immense regional sales alongside a “good partnership,” claims Toni Kiesel.

Continual development

This partnership has significantly evolved since then. In 2018 Kiesel launched Coreum, a unique platform for innovation, in which Hitachi plays a vital role. The partners then joined together again, with the development of the European Application Center for electric construction machinery. This was expanded to establish the Kenki Technology Group (KTEG) in 2022.

Last year, Kiesel won HCME’s Pioneering Spirit Award for consistent innovation in digital and customised solutions. Its innovative solutions of KTEG, zero-emission machines, machine control systems, and Coreum were commended in this recent accolade.

HCME President Takaharu Ikeda says: “Kiesel have exceeded the expectation of our customers and shown exceptional commitment to sustainability and to delivering cutting-edge solutions. Congratulations on their 20th anniversary as a Hitachi dealer ¬– we hope to continue working with them for many more.”