Return to Virginia Business - May 2002

Related stories:
This year's Fantastic 50 (intro)
The 2002 Fantastic 50 (chart)
Highest Overall Growth Rate: RGI - Robinson Gareiss
Manufacturing winner: Parker Compound Bows
Retail-Wholesale winner: Schiller International
Service winner: The Cube Corp.
Technology winner: TechBooks

by Brett Lieberman

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The giant cranes that tower over ports and construction sites around the world are engineering marvels, and few people know them better than Heinz Schiller. In a career that spans more than four decades, Schiller has designed, built and sold these massive machines, and along the way built a thriving business of his own.

The Hampton-based Schiller International, founded in 1979, is a leading seller of cranes worldwide and one of Virginia's fastest-growing businesses. Revenues in 2000 reached $40.6 million, a 383 percent increase over four years, the highest among retail-wholesale firms in the Fantastic 50. It is the second year the company has led the category, yet Schiller is modest about his success. "It's like boasting and I don't want that. We are proud, but we are not arrogant," he says.

Schiller's long relationship with the German crane manufacturer Liebherr is a key reason for the company's success. Schiller, a native of Germany, joined Liebherr in 1959, after earning engineering degrees at the College of Darmstadt and the University of Berlin. He moved to the United States in 1968 when Liebherr entered the North American market, and served as president of Newport News-based Liebherr Crane Corp. before launching his own firm in 1979.

Schiller has known Liebherr owners Willi and Isolde Liebherr for 43 years, and the two companies share a strong bond, he says. "Liebherr and Schiller, we are one unit in the way we think," he says. The relationship has been good for both companies: Schiller International is now the top worldwide marketer of the German cranes, selling about 100 cranes a year for an average of $1million each to rental firms around the country. Schiller, in a thick German accent, calls them the Mercedes of cranes. "[They are] regarded in the industry as the best product," he says.

What makes the cranes unique is their technological advances. Computers inside the cab show the operator the weight load and how much more he can lift at that moment. Lifts can also be preprogrammed so that construction crews can save time and improve safety by figuring out in advance how they will do a lift and where a load will go.

Despite five years of impressive growth, there was a time when the company fought to survive. Schiller struggled for 15 years to sell the Liebherr cranes. The cranes sold well elsewhere, but they were a tough sell in the U.S. because they exceeded state highway weight limits, which made it difficult to transport them between jobs.
But then Schiller accomplished what might be considered his biggest success. He persuaded the Liebherr family to modify their crane designs to meet U.S. regulations, making them easier to transport to job sites. Sales took off. "The overnight successes in this business take some time," Schiller says.

Schiller also attributes a great deal of his success to the team he's built around him. Family is increasingly taking a role as the company, which now employs 68 people, continues to expand and plan for the future. Schiller's son, Ingo Schiller, earned an engineering degree from the University of Virginia and joined the company in 1992. He is now president of Schiller Service Corp., a unit of the company that handles crane repairs. Schiller's daughter, Hedy Schiller Watson, joined the company in 1996 after earning an MBA from George Mason University. She is in charge of business development. "If you have a good team and a good leader, you can do impossible things," he says. "Alone you can't do anything."

Return to Virginia Business - May 2002