18.09.2010
Spanish Days
Spain was the focus of attention for the powered access industry this week with both the Elevarte and Europlatform events held in Madrid.
Europlatform was held on Thursday at the Eurostars Hotel in Madrid, over 100 delegates heard a wide range of speakers discuss their views, ideas and projections.
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Europlatform 2010
They included Craig Paylor of JLG who issued a number of warnings, including: A prediction of steep price increases for new lifts as the recession eases, the threat of an Asian manufacturer buying up large access rental companies to gain a grip on the aerial lift distribution chain and the rising over-specification of aerial lifts turning some users back towards less safe methods of access due to cost.
He also asked why a brand new machine with advanced features that customers want, should rent for the same price as an eight year old model? Adding that as this appears to be the case rental companies should hold onto equipment for longer, refurbishing as necessary and then cannibalising for spare parts, rather than sending them to auction where they have no control over the price and can potentially undermine the asset value of their fleet.
Carlos Fernandez Araoz of publicly quoted Spanish rental company Gam, gave a lively presentation on the market, saying that his company had changed its policy from being a rate cutter to one that is trying to lead the market back towards more commercially intelligent rates, but lamented that most Spanish companies were failing to follow suit.
He also urged the European rental companies attending the conference to look towards the developing world rather than the west staying put in their home markets
According to Araoz Gam has increased its overseas revenues to 20 percent of its business and now operates in 15 countries, generating $60 million in overseas revenues. He also said that aerial lifts are still the company’s most profitable equipment sector and the second best in terms of annual maintenance costs after cranes.
He ended by asking companies “ What’s your story? “ stating that a strategy of “just hanging in there” until the recession was over was not a plan that was likely to end in success.
His recipe at Gam has been to focus on top line growth, raise prices to major accounts, look beyond the comfort zone to overseas markets and to be totally thrifty. He suggested that he had managed to cut costs at the company by 30 percent by constantly refusing to spend on virtually anything, from spare parts to new hires.
Other presentations included an update on the IPAF smart card by Giles Councell, a talk on risk management by Dr Marco Einhaus who warned against the cheaper and possibly less safe access options creeping in, such as rope access replacing aerial lifts.
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The conference ends with a discussion panel
Malcolm Bowers of Lifterz and the Access Link and Oliwer Sven Dahms of Partner Lift discussed the benefits of rental alliances, while Nick Mavrick of Volvo Rents urged companies to focus their efforts on their best of best customers and to make any and all exceptions to standard policies to keep them happy and loyal.
George Marriot from Access Plus of Scotland spoke of how he has used the teachings of quality guru and statistician W. Edwards Deming to transform his business through continuous improvement and IT systems.
Staying with the IT theme Asif Latief of A-Plan discussed the benefits his company is seeing from issuing smartphones to its entire sales team, in order to improve efficiency as well as customer experience.
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(L-R) Nick Mavrick, George Marriot, Craig Paylor and Steve Shaughnessy take questions
The conference ended with speakers Craig Paylor, George Marriot, Nick Mavrick and IPAF president Steve Shaughnessy fielding questions from the audience.
Next year’s Europlatform will be held in Maastricht, on September 13th, the day before APEX.
ELEVARTE
Friday saw the first Elevarte crane and access exhibition, jointly owned by IPAF and Gulisan, the published of Spanish crane and access magazine Movicarga, open its doors at a site on the outskirts of Madrid.
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The entrance tent
The event held at the peak of Spain’s worst recession ever, was supported by 31 exhibitors, with all of the major manufacturers represented. The event follows the informal formula of Platformers Days in Germany, Vertikal Days in the UK and Verticaaldagen in Holland.
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A view of the exhibits from the platform of the Mec Titan
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The sun shone, in spite of the poor forecasts
In spite of dire predictions for the weather the sun came out and the location proved to be a great success. Key new products on display included the first appearance in Europe of the Mec Titan 40S, which combines the attributes of a boom lift, a big scissor lift and a telehandler in a single machine. The first unit, displayed on the PSE stand, was painted in the colours of international l rental company Riwal, which is putting a number of the units into its Dutch rental fleet.
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The PSE stand, with MEC Speed Level and the new Titan 40S
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The platform on the Mec Titan rotates 180 degrees
The only all new product launch was found on the stand of local producer Mecaplús, which showed a prototype of its new 16 metre working height self-levelling boom lift.
As with its highly acclaimed 12 metre model the ME16SL automatically maintains its level in slopes by up to 30 percent side to side and 16 percent end to end. The lift weighs under 6,000 kgs, has an outreach of 6.3 metres to the edge of the platform with 200kgs lift capacity and includes an articulating jib with 140 degrees of articulation .
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The new 16 metre Mecaplús, ME16SL
For the rest we will let the pictures do the talking.
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The machine display area at Elevarte
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JLG to the left Haulotte to the right a busier part of the day
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Joint organiser Macarena Garcia Oliver (smiling) with visitors at Elevarte
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Jekko and Airo - crane and access on show
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The Snorkel stand
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The Manitou built Genie GR26J
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The Niftylift HR15 and 17m CTE spider lift
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Skyjack booms and Socage truck mounts
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A view from the bottom of the exhibit space
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Manitou
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ATN showed its full range, including its new RT scissor and 12m Zebra 12 boom lift
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The Ritchies Bros video attacted attention
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Snorkel had its new electric slab scissors on show
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The 'marketplace ' stands
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The catering area
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IPAF MD Tim Whiteman at the show
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A view of the exhibits from the platform of the Mec Titan
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