Kalmar Service Heroes: A family story

Pascal Lozay works as a service technician at Kalmar in Le Havre, France. He has been with the company since 2002, but a unique aspect of his job is that for the last five years, he has had the opportunity to work together with his son Valentin Lozay in the same organization.

 "I have worked on cargo handling machines for my entire career as a technician, and that's why I joined Kalmar," Pascal recounts. "And now my son has followed me, which is great!"

 As the younger member of the father-son team, Valentin works as technical support for Kalmar France and the country's overseas territories. He travels regularly around France as well as to the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Most recently, he returned from New Caledonia in the Southwest Pacific to provide technical support to our partner and enhance our customer relationship.

A family tradition

Through his father Pascal's work at Kalmar, Valentin was familiar with Kalmar machines from an early age. "I've always been into it," he says. "As a child, I loved to read the Kalmar catalogues and technical documentation, we had Kalmar toys, and so on. So I followed pretty much all of it."

After completing his studies, Valentin found an opportunity to work at Kalmar, but he didn't tell his father about his new employment at the same company. "I decided I was ready to join Kalmar too, so one day there I was," Valentin laughs. "It was definitely a surprise."

"Today, I'm very happy that Valentin is working at Kalmar, bringing new things to the company," Pascal says. "And it's great that we have the chance to work together. For example, recently we changed a gearbox together on a reachstacker in Martinique."

Complementary skills

In their work as service technicians, the Lozays enjoy the day-to-day variety of the job. Pascal works on a wide array of Kalmar machines from reachstackers to forklift trucks and tractors.

 "My favourite task is assembling a machine, whether new or used, fine-tuning it and then presenting it to the customer. And of course, training the next generation of technicians. It's important that we have new young professionals to continue our work with all the skills they need for the job."

Valentin's role as technical support involves a combination of administrative and field work. "What I enjoy most is going out to meet our customers, service providers and technicians. Seeing the machines working under different conditions really gives you a wider perspective that you wouldn't get from only one site," he says.

Working as a team, Pascal and Valentin have found that their skill sets and areas of expertise complement each other well. On their recent gearbox replacement collaboration, Pascal took the lead on the mechanical aspects of the job, while Valentin focused on the required software updates and configuration.

 "I have a bit more technical experience, so there are a lot of things I can show Valentin," says Pascal. "But when it comes to computers today, he definitely has plenty to teach me too!"

Long-time collaboration

Although based in Le Havre, Pascal and Valentin's work regularly takes them across France. One of their regular customers is Swiss Krono, a global leading manufacturer of wood-based materials. The company's plant at Sully-sur-Loire, located approximately 140 km south of Paris, manufactures a range of interior and building materials (a timber plant). The factory operates a fleet of Kalmar machines including log stackers and forklift trucks.     

Frédéric Mery has been a workshop manager (Responsable d'atelier parc engins) at Swiss Krono France for 36 years and has worked with Pascal since he joined the company in 2002. The long-term collaboration has yielded excellent results.

"We work on carts and logstackers, and everything goes smoothly, with no worries," says Frédéric.

 The maintenance team at Swiss Krono's workshop will be occupied with electrifying the company's fleet of forklifts in the next few years.

 "Electrification is definitely a new adventure for us, but the next generation of technicians is already here," says Frédéric with a nod to Valentin. "So, we'll start it, and they'll take over and continue. And that's great."

On and off the road

In their free time, Pascal and Valentin like to bring their technical skills to bear on their hobbies as well. Pascal enjoys looking after his house and garden, and father and son often go for rides in their offroad buggy.

Valentin's passion is fixing up 1980s-vintage French cars and he has participated in several charity off-road races including the 4L Trophy, raced in the Moroccan desert with Renault 4L's, and Europ'Raid, an 8,000-kilometer, 22-day tour across Europe, run with Peugeot 205's.

"Yes, I really do fix quite a lot of things," Valentin laughs. "So there are always a lot of projects underway, keeping us occupied."

Working at Kalmar, Pascal and Valentin appreciate the company's focus on both sustainability and the work environment. "They're really working hard on these aspects," Pascal says. "So that's why we like working for this company today."

"The whole learning part is also important," adds Valentin. "There's a lot of new technology to adopt and new solutions coming onto the market, especially with the electrification of machines. Working at Kalmar really gives you a global perspective on these things, which is very cool."