AUSA opens Middle East office; appoints new UK manager

AUSA has opened a subsidiary in Dubai (UAE) to strengthen its sales presence in the Middle East and at the same time has appointed a new UK and Ireland country manager, Erik Broderstad, an ex-Hewden and A-Plant director.

The new subsidiary is located central Dubai and is being managed by AUSA's Middle East manager, Manel Serrano. AUSA said its sales to the region more than doubled in the first quarter of this year and that the plan is for the Middle East to represent 5% of total export sales by the end of 2011, up from 4% now.

"Market growth has led us to revise our strategy in the region", said Mr Serrano, "Part of the new strategy has been to move closer to the distribution channel, which enables closer monitoring of both mature and new AUSA products. Each visit to the region had seen the sprouting of more and more opportunities, which ultimately led to the decision to set up AUSA Middle East".

As well as increasing sales of its construction equipment AUSA said it will promote its URBAN range of cleaning and maintenance products used by local authorities.

In the UK, meanwhile, AUSA has appointed Erik Broderstad as its new UK & Ireland country manager. He is well known in the rental industry, having worked as a sales director at A-Plant and as operations director at Hewden.

Josep Soler, AUSA's commercial director, said Mr Broderstad's appointment would make a major contribution in expanding AUSA's footprint in the market and allow it to enter more customer sectors. He said it also demonstrated AUSA's committment to serving the rental sector.