24.09.2004

Doornbos and Doornbos

The former Komatsu importer in Holland Doornbos B&N ran into difficulties earlier this year and filed for bankruptcy in late August. Thanks to the shared name, many people in Holland and the UK have assumed that the totally unrelated crane and access rental companies owned and managed by Dennis Doornbos:- Doornbos Verhuur NL. Doornbos Kranverhuur NL, Doornbos Rental UK Ltd and Doornbos Denmark have gone bankrupt!

In fact according to the company the crane and access business is thriving and experiencing one of its best periods in years.

The confusion is not helped by the fact that the two companies were neighbours in Rotterdam; Doornbos B&N was even located in the same block.. Seven or eight years ago the two companies were part of the same family company but split completely with Denis taking and building up his Crane and Access business while his nephew continued with the Komatsu and plant distribution business.

Doornbos Verhuur/Kranverhuur is a major player in the Dutch market with a large powered access, crane, telehandler and large forklift fleet. They also increasingly rent high pressure water jetting and vacuum equipment.

In the UK Doornbos is located in Southampton. The UK business is more involved in specialised products but do rent larger access and lifting equipment into the UK and Irish market, such as 30 metre scissor lifts and big booms, usually on a major project or rehire basis.

In a statement today the company said

“The board of directors of the Doornbos Verhuur group would like to make it totally clear that we as a group or individually are totally unaffected by what has happened to Doornbos B & N and that the current trading conditions we are experiencing in all of our trading areas across Europe are better than they have been for the many years and we have ambitious expansion plans for all of our European operations in the coming months”.