Ontario dealer CanLift steps into earthmoving with XCMG agreement

When fully up and running, CanLift will be able to offer the full line of XCMG earthmoving machines, including excavators, compactors, skid-steers, and more.

“We’re concentrating on mini-excavators to start. We’re going to be strategic about it – we’re not bringing in everything they have immediately,” Dragicevic said. “We’re starting with the excavators and rollers, and then that will lead to other products.”

On the service side, CanLift is leveraging its in-house experience and skill set working with aerial equipment in preparation for providing maintenance and service for the XCMG machines it sells.

“We have factory-trained technicians coming to train our staff here, and we have several mechanics on the road. Our mechanics are currently versed in some of the other manufacturers’ machines, so they have the understanding of the excavators and other machines we’ll be dealing with,” Dragicevic said.

Parts and components will be available from two XCMG depots currently operating in the United States, and plans are for a third in the U.S. as well as two in Canada moving forward. That availability will bring benefits for buyers of the XCMG machines, especially considering some of the supply chain challenges that have surfaced in the past two years.

Grant pointed out that XCMG is vertically integrated and controls much more of its own supply chain than some other manufacturers might.

“They haven’t outsourced as much of their marketing as other manufacturers, so they have a greater degree of control, and hence a greater ability to deliver in the current environment,” Grant explained. While in some cases some parts may take weeks or months to be delivered due to supply chain challenges, XCMG should be able to shorten that time frame significantly due to the vertical structure of its operation, he added.

“That was something in going through the decision process, that we liked, knowing the environment that we’re in,” Grant said. “Being with a partner who had more control over supply was very attractive, because it allows us to not deal with those issues when we’re dealing with our end customers.”

Those benefits also apply to the machinery itself. CanLift has machines available on site, and more are on the way.

“We’ve got four different sizes of excavator on the ground right now ready to go, and the next ship is due in a month or so – we’ve got stuff on the water,” Grant said. “That’s going to be arriving at the perfect time, when the ground thaws, and there’s no longer three feet of snow.”

Customers have proven quite interested in the XCMG machines since the agreement with CanLift was announced, and the equipment has already started to move.

“We’ve had customers from the aerial side of things who have requested these machines – a couple of customers have already purchased a couple of the excavators and rollers,” Grant said. “It’s nice when your customers validate what you believe to be true, and the response has been very, very good.”