During 2005, the business Pinguely-Haulotte was renamed Haulotte Group. This name change brought the end of the Pinguely name after 124 years! The Haulotte Group is popular for manufacturing articulated work platforms, telescopic work platforms, trailer mounted work platforms, vertical mast-work platforms and scissor lifts.
The Haulotte Group obtained Bil-Jax, Inc. on July 24th, 2008. Bil-Jax is the largest US scaffold manufacturer. Now, Haulotte Group has three plants in France, one factory in Spain, one factory in Romania, near Pitesti City. There is a new plant that opened in the winter of 2008. This plant is only 1 km away from the existing plant near the city of Pitesti within the County of Arges. The plant is referred to as Arges II. There are also two plants in the USA, the former Bill-Jax.
Pinguely
Alexandre Pinguely formed the Pinguely Company in 1881 in Lyon, France. Initially, they constructed steam locomotives. The business evolved into making machines eventually. In 1892, they supplied a train to the Chemin de Fer de St Victor a Thizy.
Pinguely supplied 7 steam engines to the Voiron-Saint-Beron railway. When it comes to numbers produced, Pinguely was not a main locomotive manufacturer. The company provided a steam locomotive to the Chemin de Fer du Haut-Rhone during the year 1930 and by 1932, Pinguely began making steam shovels. Steam locomotive production was stopped and the company began focusing instead on mobile cranes and manufacturing earthmoving equipment instead.
Haulotte
In 1924, Haulotte was formed in L'Horme by Arthur Haulotte. The company was called Ateliers de Construction A. Haulotte. This business specialized in the production of aerial platforms, mobile cranes and derricks.
Pinguely-Haulotte
It was decided that the actual manufacturing was to be sub-contracted to Pinguely-Haulotte. They were to be responsible for the marketing and engineering, design, research and development. All products were abandoned by Saubot so that the company can concentrate on self-propelled aerial work platforms.