H. Schmitz
Holger Schmitz has been with Clark since 2023 and previously held the position of Business Development Manager. Clark Europe has now appointed him as the successor to Stefan Budweit as Director of Sales & Marketing, who has been promoted to CEO.
Schmitz and Clark share a long history, as his career path first led him to the material handling equipment manufacturer, then based in Mülheim, in 2000. Following an internship, he was hired permanently in internal sales. In 2003, he moved to Pramac Lifter, where he worked as a dealer manager. From 2007 until his return to Clark Europe, Holger Schmitz served as Country Manager at Doosan Industrial Vehicle Europe, overseeing the German branches and sales activities in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and Eastern Europe.
Photos: Clark/S.Barde
Clark Europe recently concluded a successful year with celebrations marking its 20th anniversary at the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex, once the world's largest coal mine. In 2024, the company celebrated twenty years since its initial headquarters in Mülheim an der Ruhr and its tenth year at the Niederrhein Business Park in Duisburg. In mid-September, sales partners from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, along with employees, gathered for a large-scale anniversary celebration in the unique setting of the former coal mine in Essen, now an architectural and industrial monument and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001.
Zollverein Coal Mine.
Rolf Eiten, President and CEO of Clark Europe until the handover to Stefan Budweit in January 2025, also looked back on the legacy of the American Eugene Bradley Clark, who in 1917 developed the first internal combustion engine industrial forklift and thus laid the foundation for the company's more than 100-year-long worldwide success with over 1.4 million forklifts sold worldwide.
It was partly thanks to this expertise that in 2004 a small team in a tiny office, a stone's throw from the company's current location, was able to breathe new life into Clark Europe's business. "Thanks to their entrepreneurial courage and commitment, we were able to grow again, build a comprehensive dealer network in the EMEA region, and successfully reposition the brand in the market.".
S. Budweit, R. Eiten
Visitors were given a first look at upcoming product highlights, such as the new 48-volt three- and four-wheel forklifts of the STE/SE series with lithium-ion technology, which, like their 80-volt counterparts, belong to the S-Series Electric; the new S25-35XE and L25-35XE electric forklift series, which are intended to replace internal combustion engine counterbalance forklifts in the future; and the brand-new CLARK S160D – an internal combustion engine forklift with a lifting capacity of 16 tons, with which CLARK is venturing into the heavy-duty forklift segment for the first time and aims to tap into new industries and customers.
