When Johannes Christophel founded his company Christophel GmbH in 1983 in Germany to sell used machinery, he probably had no idea how it would develop.
Now – almost 40 years later – Christophel GmbH is a well-known and established trading company for special construction machinery. The next generation is now responsible – the founder´s son Rüdiger Christophel. After joining the company at the end of the 1980s, he has been managing the fortunes of Christophel GmbH as managing director together with another managing director. The sales areas have been gradually expanded over the past few years in large parts of Germany. A second office in Western Germany is now part of the company as well as more than 60 employees and an annual turnover of over 60 million euros. The company’s headquarter is located in Lübeck, in the north of Germany.
The company’s core business is the sale of screening, crushing, washing and shredding equipment as well as other special construction machines for the construction and recycling industry. In doing so, Christophel GmbH cooperates as the exclusive sales partner of major manufacturers. Customer service is a top priority at Christophel. In addition to a comprehensive network of subcontractors, the company is increasingly expanding its own service team. The aim is to provide customers with the best possible service quickly with machines that became more and more complex. For this purpose, next to the current workshop a new hall has been built on the site, which, with around 1,000m², serves as a warehouse for over 25.000 pieces of spare and wear parts.
In 2003 the company has developed its own brand label called CityEquip.
The reason for this was a production stop of one major supplier´s crusher model. As there was still demand for this kind of crusher on the market the idea was born to manufacture it themselves to be more independent from the suppliers. Due to the successful market implementation and growing sales throughout the following years the product line of CityEquip was extended steadily.
Today CityEquip machines are manufactured in Flensburg in the North of Germany and are distributed throughout a worldwide dealer network.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of CityEquip?
CHRISTOPHEL: CityEquip is specialised on manufacturing compact and robust machines which are very simple to work with based on the philosophy of extremely high convenience for operators. The idea is that every CityEquip machine is ready for operation without necessity of long training and within short set-up time. Most of our global customers work in the Construction & Demolition waste market industry but with some of our machines we are also successful in the composting, waste and scrap processing segment.
We distribute our products to most european countries and started to export globally during the last few years.
E.E: What are the ranges of the products and what are the most innovated products marketed?
CHRISTOPHEL: CityEquip dealers all over the world use CityEquip machines to extend their existing product range. The CityEquip range focuses on four different segments. Crushing, Screening, Separation and Customized components.
With the hooklift 700×500 jaw crusher CitySkid7XE hybrid CityEquip provides a unique solution for crushing directly on site, even in the inner Cities. The hooklift transport concept allows transport without any permissions and quick setup time and the hybrid drive concept guarantees low fuel consumption or alternatively possibility to use electric power on site. For more mobility with the CityTrak 7TX hybrid, CityEquip also offers a trackmobile solution.
With our AirMaster NEO we have the worlds first compact mobile air separator with 3-fraction separation in our range. The new modular system enabled us to reduce delivery time and production costs. It also provides more flexibility. One type of machine which is easily extendable by 10 different options. All options can be upgraded later on without any big effort.
The light material chamber with our unique air circulation system reduces necessary amount of air and environmental pollution.
With our mobile container Hydromaster1000 and CitySort1000, we offer compact and mobile solutions for separating heavy from light material or non-ferrous metals from the rest of the material.
The product range is supplemented by our City Components range which includes custom made bunker systems, log washer, sand screws, feed hopper or dewatering screens.
E.E: What´s the news about new products?
CHRISTOPHEL: Currently we are further developing our crusher product line. We will integrate some innovation and upgrades on existing models with regard to sustainability and usability. For example, we have been one of the first manufacturers on the market offering an electric drive concept for all our machines and we will continue going further in this direction. We will also come out with a new crusher model to complement our product line. We plan to show it at Bauma exhibition in Munich next year.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
CHRISTOPHEL: The global Construction & Demolition waste market is estimated to be USD 26.6 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 34.4 billion by 2026, at a compound annual growth rate of 5.3% from 2021 to 2026. Due to the increasing global construction activities and the effort of many countries towards sustainability the demand for recycled construction material will further increase. Unfortunately, the positive development is currently slowed down by rapidly increasing prices and partly nonavailability of preliminary products like steel, blue chips or plastics due to the global high demand and interrupted supply chains.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
CHRISTOPHEL: In the past development in the crushing business headed towards more complex machines with more and more advanced features. But especially in the recycling industry in comparison to the quarry industry requirements are increasing. Changing application sites, impurities, inhomogenous materials and uncrushable parts lead to several problems. The operators of the machines often do not have the know-how in order to accommodate the enormously increasing technical complexity. So the demand for simplified machine concepts and simple handling is growing with more focus on smart and simple operation together with easy maintenance. With our CityEquip concept we meet that growing demand and we are sure that this trend will further grow in the future.
Another trend is the increase of recycling raw materials in the construction and demolition waste sector which can enhance development of new solutions and innovations for C&D waste management.
Scarce resources, stricter regulations by the governments and various benefits using recycled C&D waste products in the construction industry (e.g. avoiding waste disposal and landfill tax, reduced construction costs or reduced environmental costs) lead to a growing demand of sorting and recycling technologies which are able to further process the recycling materials.
This will create new possibilities in terms of development and commercialization of innovative sorting and recycling technologies, among which the CityEquip products and innovations can be found.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2022?
CHRISTOPHEL: So far, we have come through the pandemic crisis rather well as our industry and our customers have not been affected that much due to the large amount of ongoing infrastructure and construction projects. We hope that the tense situation of currently rising costs and availability of raw materials will improve throughout the next year as this can slow down the further growth. Nevertheless 2022 will be an exciting year for us.
We are really looking forward to exhibit again at the world´s biggest construction trade fair Bauma in Munich next year. Finally having the chance again to meet friends and customers from all over the word personally and to be able to show our latest product improvements and innovations.