Supermarket sweep: how Avesco Rent’s new CEO is bringing the Aldi effect to rental

Just over a year ago, Cornelia Kuratli was managing store operations in Switzerland for Aldi, having worked her way up through the ranks of the German discount supermarket chain’s graduate recruitment programme.

Now, as the new CEO of Avesco Rent Switzerland, Kuratli says whether its egg rolls or excavators, Gruyere or generators, the business fundamentals between the two operations remain remarkably consistent.

“Even though it doesn’t seem that way at first, there’s a lot of similarities - more than differences to be honest,” Kuratli says. Even though it’s a different industry, I feel like the dynamics are rather similar. You always have to be close to the market, be close to the customers and try to find the best customer service, the best products to fit the customers’ needs. A lot of managers from the retail sector have gone into rental – either car rental or machine rental. It’s a very dynamic industry.”

Moreover, Kuratli points out that the similarities between the organisations don’t stop there. Both comprise decentralised organisations of separate stores spread across the country; both firms are multi-national and multi-lingual.

Even Kuratli’s onboarding process for working at Avesco Rent has been a similar process to the one she went through on the Aldi trainee programme, she says. She spent two weeks in two separate Avesco Rent branches shadowing the mechanics, admin staff and other workers as well as visiting customers, job sites, other parts of the business and the company’s main partner Caterpillar.

Aldi-style onboarding

“The onboarding of my last and current role were similar in terms of spending time working alongside the employees,” she says. “I think that’s part of every decent onboarding training to really understand the business. It’s like really trying to get to know all the core business that we do. All management staff in my last role spent time working on the shop floor. So, it’s something I’ve always been used to and that’s why I know it’s important.”

Avesco Rent, part of family-owned Avesco, a long-established Caterpillar dealer in Switzerland, which in more recent years has expanded its territory to include the Baltic States and Finland, has a history of attempting to incorporate innovative ideas from other industries into its practices.

Kuratli’s predecessor, long term industry spokesman Vincent Albasini, who led the business for 19 years, came from a background in the financial sector and was instrumental in establishing the company’s online channels as well as helping to establish speciality divisions such as the company’s wastewater unit and setting up a partnership to use a fully electric 40 tonne truck to transport equipment between its depots.

Kuratli says one of her key strengths is that she can bring a fresh new take on the business. “Obviously what I brought to the company is a fresh look at certain things that have always been that way,” Kuratli says. “At some stage you don’t question things that have been in place. Having a new leadership team gives new possibilities to challenge certain topics and to bring a new dynamic into the business. I think that’s the advantage of my asking questions and just getting to know the business as it as it is.”

So far Kuratli is remaining tight-lipped over exactly where her fresh new take is likely to bring the business. Nonetheless, she is keen to grow the firm’s online retail offering and push ahead with adopting alternative fuels where possible. So far, she says in the last year the firm has doubled it budget to spend on electric machines and she expects this trend to continue.

Caterpillar equipment is an important element of Avesco Rent’s business.

“Avesco has always had a strong history of trying to be a market leader,” she says. “It’s always looking to innovate with things like using electric trucks and creating the opportunity to book machines online. These things were not demanded from the market. It was voluntary and an obvious way to go.”

With a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Zurich and a master’s degree in management, organisation and culture from the University of St Gallen which she completed in 2014, Kuratli says that ultimately the biggest difference between the machine rental and retail sectors is how well B2B firms know their clients.

“The biggest difference is the relationship with the customer. In retail, you don’t really know who the customers are. You collect data to kind of get a pattern to be able to improve your products and services. Whereas in in the B2B sector it’s all about relationships. You know your customers. It’s important to have a good relationship and also a long term partnership. it’s not just a one off.”

Kuratli says that being a young woman leading a major rental firm is “not a topic” and points to the strong female presence already in the company. She joins CFO Sulaica Tardy, sits alongside Milla Törmälä, CEO of the company’s Finish business while the company’s owner, the Ammann family is jointly led by another ambitious businesswoman, Daniela Aeschlimann-Schneider.

Kuratli starts her new role leading the Swiss rental business at a challenging time. According to ING, European construction volumes declined by 2% in 2024 suffering headwinds from rising materials costs, war in Ukraine and interest rate hikes – not to mention the aftereffects of the global pandemic which overnight all but destroyed Avesco Rent’s events business. And, with the global economy reeling from the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the imposition of US import tariffs, businesses in Switzerland and around the world are finding it difficult to expand.

“In the past there have been several challenges in the markets,” Kuratli says. “Take the example of Covid, when all of a sudden, the events business was destroyed in a very short period of time.

“You have to be flexible and reinvent yourself to a certain extent. And I think that’s the really big strength of the business, to change quickly, to adapt to the market because we’re a multi specialist so we do have several areas where we work from. So that helps us stabilise the business if one area is weaker than the other or, on the other hand, to expand the ones that are strong.”

Nonetheless, Kuratli says that she expects to see an improvement in market conditions in the Swiss construction market this year while other parts of the business are already growing strongly. These include the company’s recently launched wastewater treatment business, which rents out tanks, washing basins and digital control technology for use on construction sites in order to allow contractors to pour away water which has been used on construction sites. It also includes the company’s energy solutions business which rents out gensets as well as heaters, air-conditioning units and pumps.

Optimistic outlook

“We are very optimistic for the future. Definitely the Swiss business this year has picked up positively,” she says. “The events business has picked up again. There are a few big infrastructure projects due to be starting soon on which we’re waiting for final confirmation. Our energy solutions department is definitely one area that has been growing. And also, the water treatment business has been growing.”

Further afield too. She is confident that the company’s relationship with US manufacturing giant Caterpillar will help Avesco navigate the current market uncertainty produced by US President Donald Trump’s frequently changing import tariff policy.

“It’s too early yet to say what the impact of tariffs will be,” she says. “Our machine orders for the year are already completed and we source machines from so many different areas that it’s probably only a small proportion would be affected anyway. Caterpillar is a very global company. And having a long-term focus, it is closely monitoring the situation. I think they’re going to be able to find a good solution also for us and the customers in the end. So, I don’t see that there is going to be massive impact in the short term. The situation is changing so quickly at the moment that it’s very hard to give a long-term vision of what’s going to happen. I think it’s important to be close to the market and be in close contact with the suppliers.”