Ebbe Christensen on his departure from Ruthmann Reachmaster
09 December 2024
Pioneer of the spider and specialty lift market in North America Ebbe Christensen has left US-based Ruthmann Reachmaster along with a number of other employees, following a restructure by parent group Time Manufacturing Company.
Christensen departs following 24 years at the helm of the Houston, Texas-based Ruthmann Reachmaster under its various ownerships, including his own for eight years.
Ebbe Christensen
Until recently Ruthmann/Reachmaster distributed a range of European-produced MEWPs and vehicle mounts in the North American market. “When I sold ReachMaster to Ruthmann in 2020 the market and strategies were different as our product portfolio was a mixture of both truck mounted and self propelled specialty lift equipment. When the Ruthmann Group later became a part of Time Manufacturing Company these parameters changed as most of the combined product portfolio [except the group’s Bluelift spider line] is truck mounted equipment,” explains Ebbe Christensen.
That, said Christensen, prompted Time to change the focus to truck mounted equipment, as well as selling and Time products. As a result, Christensen left the company in mid-September along with part of the team that handled the national rental market and end-users of non truck mounted products, including Bluelift, Almac Crawlers, Winlet and part of the Ruthmann Ecoline, added Christensen. (Bluelift and the Ecoline remains part of the Ruthmann Reachmaster portfolio).
Operational hub
Christensen added that he sold ReachMaster to Germany-based Ruthmann in 2020, with the purpose of making it the operational base in North America for the Ruthmann Group. Christensen had owned ReachMaster since 2012 when he bought it from its previous Danish owners Falkon, whom he had worked for as President since starting it up as a US subsidiary in 2000. He later added the Denka line in 2005 and Hinowa products in 2007.
When JLG took over representation of Hinowa in 2010, he launched the Bluelift line. During his ownership the company also launched the Almac Crawler, Dinolift and PB Lifttechnik lift lines to the North American market. Additionally, he developed a material handling division, representing lines like Winlet glass manipulators, Galizia pick & carry cranes and Migthy Cranes mini cranes.
In 2015, together with Ruthmann in Germany Christensen pioneered a concept of a 100 plus feet non-CDL truck mounted unit, resulting in the Ruthmann Eagle line. With 108ft working height unit on a Ford F-650 chassis, which remained under CDL requirement. Being a hybrid lift system built by Ruthmann in Germany, and mounted by ReachMaster on a locally supplied chassis in Porter, Texas, it was the first of its kind. The concept was continued with the smaller Ruthmann Ecoline 75 mounted on a Ford Transit chassis. In 2021 the Ruthmann Group was sold to Time Manufacturing Company.
Christensen has also been very active in various industry organizations, in particular IPAF, where he is a past chair of the IPAF North American Regional Council, and still an active member of the council. He was named 2024 IPAF/ALH North America Person of the Year Award at the recent Working at Height conference in Nashville.
Fond memories
He concludes, “It has been a fantastic journey to introduce new and safer solutions for working temporarily at height to the North American markets, including Canada and Mexico. I have been very privileged over the past 24 years to work with both exceptionally talented and innovative European manufacturers and a fantastic team of loyal employees without whom it would have been impossible.
“While we were selling equipment, it was always the people that made the difference with our customers and without any doubt the biggest asset of the company. It has been a pleasure working with the Time Manufacturing Company team as well, where my team and I almost tripled the company’s revenue the past three years. I wish them all the best going forward.”
Speaking about the future Christensen says he is far from retirement and intends to stay in the industry, and look into new opportunities. “This is such a great industry with wonderful people on a mission to provide safer and better solutions for working at height, so there is plenty of pioneering still to be done.”
Ruthmann Reachmaster North America LP is continuing its operation, including service and parts, in a new facility in New Caney, Texas, away from its previous location which is still owned by Christensen.
Read comments from Ruthmann about the Ruthmann/Reachmaster restructure and other related topics in the article below:
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