Alwark, handling and municipal equipment company, which started from one well-known German brand and lead to the company representing the leading manufacturers in the Baltic states, now has a decade of history. During the decade, the Lithuanian team amicably separated from the German owners and considerably increased the range of represented brands and types of equipment. What remained stable was the strong determination of the company to comply with the principles of outstanding quality in all areas of activity.
Alwark sells and rents new and used specialized handling and municipal equipment and provides all technical service and maintenance services. The beginning of the company was the year 2007, when Willenbrock, a German company representing one of the most famous brands of loaders Linde, invited by Lithuanians entered the Lithuanian market. The inspiring and stunningly successful start of activity was soon followed by a gloomy mood: the economic recession hit with full force, the sales dropped drastically, and the future of the young company hung in the balance. However, the cold shower of the crisis did not put out the faith in the idea and even at darkest times the management of the Lithuanian company saw prospects and were convinced that quality equipment does have a future – they only had to survive the recession.
“The crisis was the moment of truth, where the matter of survival had to be decided. It was an extremely difficult time, but those who endured acquired invaluable experience and a stimulus for the future. We are not an exception: the recession revealed the role of the leader and the importance of the leader’s ability to unite the people for a single purpose. Having overcome this trying period, the core of the company became much stronger and more resistant to potential blows. When planning for the future, we always remember that there may be economically less successful periods. Moreover, the crisis has clearly confirmed that those who faithfully follow their principles would eventually win. Hard as it was, we resisted the temptation to compromise the quality of products and services, and it eventually paid off abundantly,” said Gedvidas Belickas, Director of Alwark UAB.
Best products, best service
Standing shoulder to shoulder and putting the heads together during the crisis have produced results – the company diversified its activity, broadened the range of represented brands by adding other, first of all, municipal equipment, optimised the efficiency of administration and agreed with the owners intimidated by market turbulence that the ownership would gradually pass to the Lithuanian managers. This was finally completed in 2015 – the managers of the Company became its shareholders and having outgrown its previous profile of activity, the company gained a new name – Alwark. “All handling, warehousing, port and municipal works using the equipment best suited for such purpose,” Mr. Belickas briefly explained the origin of the name.
Linde, one of the most famous brands of handling equipment in the world, remained the flagman of the company, but today the company also offers the products of at least eight other reliable global brands. However, being the supermarket of equipment is not the aim of Alwark. The range of products is well thought-through, the brands supplement each other and new ones are chosen after careful consideration whether both the product and its service would meet the highest quality standards.
“The choice of partners is essential in a long-term perspective. We receive a lot of proposals to represent different brands in Lithuania, but we only offer the best ones in the market. We guarantee highest-quality service to our clients, which is why we carefully consider, whether the manufacturers will be able to properly carry out their post-sale obligations: promptly and smoothly resolve guarantee claims, ensure the supply of spare parts, etc. Our customers win the competitive battle not because they buy cheaper equipment, but because the equipment reliably serves them every single day. Ensuring this is our task and mission,” said Mr. Belickas.
Genuine and unfeigned care for the clients, including comprehensive technical support after the sale, has always been at the heart of the company. Top-level service is demanded by the products themselves as well as the clients, who are looking for most reliable equipment and service rather than the cheapest one. Mr. Gedvidas said that the clients were the best litmus paper of the business and was pleased with the fact that even the most demanding expectations were being met.
Alwark equipment is particularly used in ports, where even one day of idle time may lead to damaging consequences for the business. We have recently carried out an independent survey of clients in order to find out the areas we need to improve in. We asked about our service – response time, quality of work, communication of engineers with the buyer and other matters. I must admit, we did not expect such results – there hardly was any negative feedback. This means that our choice to invest in people, their professionalism, work equipment, communication skills and attitude to the client had been justified,” said Mr. Gedvidas.
