"My grand-parents, Claude and Hélène Lethiec established this company in the 1960s. They had four staff members, and back then, were based in Cannes; several years after the company started, they were offered the opportunity to purchase land at Mandelieu, where they built a shed. At the same time - during the 1970s and 80s that my father, Jean-Jacques, joined the company where he developed the business at Mandelieu. At that time they had
10 employees," explained Yannick Lethiec, Facilities Manager at Lethiec et Fils.
"To begin with our core business was simply repairing diesel engines on boats; they then restructured and added boat sales to the business, and when my father came in, he wanted to go into boat storage," he continued.
As time went on, the company grew. A new shed was built, the guard and maintenance services expanded, the sales and repair section also grew. Jean-Jacques, the son of the founders, then moved the family business forward during the 1990s, and like his father before him, grandson Yannick, the current manager, joined the company ten years ago to take over the management in his turn.
Today Lethiec et Fils posts revenues of €3m, sells around forty boats a year, and employs
10 members of staff. Today, its business activities comprise storage, transport and handling, preparation, maintenance, sale of spare parts for Mercury and Yanmar engines; sale of Quicksilver and Pursuit boats, and more.
And the company needed a very robust fork lift truck to work with all these activities, and Yannick turned to PIC, Hyundai Material Handling's local agent to purchase his second Hyundai Material Handling fork lift - a 160D-9, which was delivered at the beginning of the year.
"Today, the boats we sell are getting bigger, and we are doing the maintenance on off-shore boats, which are very long, and handling them with the straps is a delicate manoeuver. So we needed a truck that would allow us to load and unload boats up to 12 meters long, that had a particular fork length, fitted with a hook, articulation up the 7 meters high, solid tires, and additional ballast," explained Yannick Lethiec.
160D-9
The 160D-9 fork-lift truck is compact and powerful, has an extended carrying capacity, optimum safety, an excellent cost/efficiency ratio. It is also very comfortable to drive. This is confirmed by Yannick: "It’s mainly me driving and I can tell you that working in this cabin is a delight! It’s like driving a car! It’s fairly easy to use because it’s intuitive and the camera is terrific for manoeuvring. All in all it is straightforward, robust, practical, and visibility is great, I am truly happy with it," he commented.
This model has a lifting capacity of 16 tons, with a load center of 1,200 mm. It is fitted with a high-performance 166 hp (122 kW) 2,300 rpm Cummins QSB6.7 engine which is very fuel efficient. It is designed to lift heavy loads capable of moving large and heavy items such as the boats shown here, which can weigh up to 11,000 kg.
