21.09.2011

SkyHigh closes its doors

Belgian boom and trailer lift manufacturer SkyHigh NV has been declared bankrupt and has closed its doors.

The final petition was approved by the commercial court of Antwerp on September 13th, 2011. Numerous attempts to contact SkyHigh, which produced a range of trailer lifts self-propelled boom lifts and special rail machines, have failed.
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The SkyHigh plant near Antwerp

The company’s web site is down, the main telephone line rings but is not answered and attempts to reach owner Erik Achten via his mobile phone has also failed. We do though have a document which confirms the insolvency supporting earlier information from a supplier.
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Erik Aghten

Achten is understood to have started a new company dealing in used equipment, but this has not yet been confirmed.

SkyHigh is a long established company that dates back to the 1980’s when its corporate name was Etramo. The company’s 12 metre self-propelled lift closely resembled the Nifty Height Rider but never managed to achieve the success of that product. The company also mounted the superstructure on a pick-up truck and in recent years has had success with niche rail mounted versions and ATEX explosion proof models.
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A road/rail version of the 12 metre SkyHigh self-propelled boom lift

We will continue to try and contact Achten in order to find out if any steps have been taken regarding the on-going supply of spare parts. We do understand that a number of its electric and hydraulic suppliers are contacting owners to offer a direct supply.

Vertikal Comment

We do not know any of the details surrounding the failure of SkyHigh, although it is no surprise. It is also sad to see a small specialist, family owned manufacturer ‘go to the wall’ like this. Achten worked hard to make his products ultra reliable and reacted quickly to customer input when it came to improvements.

However the company did very little true new product development, the products it offered were all structurally based on designs that dated back some 15 years or more, focusing instead on specials. The policy for standard machines was on-going evolution in terms of the electrical and hydraulic systems, but in a way this potentially made each new machine a little different from ones that had been acquired before.

The company also failed to build a successful distributor network, meaning that it relied on a small pool of specialist customers. And finally in recent years it spent little to nothing on marketing or brand awareness, relying on word of mouth and repeat orders. As such it was always vulnerable.

Sky High