02.07.2012

Ranger drops Teupen sales

Ranger Equipment, the Teupen distributor for the UK and Ireland has decided to end its agreement with the manufacturer.

It will though continue to provide service, parts and technical support for the UK/Ireland Teupen spider lift population.

The company says that it has made its decision based purely on financial considerations. Stating that as a premium brand Teupen’s pricing structure is high compared to most other spider lift product, which combined with lower volumes and more competitors – many of them low overhead operations – make independent distribution of the brand unviable.
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Ranger with Tuepen machines at Vertikal Days 2011

Ranger managing director Steve Hadfield added: “We have always fully funded the very high marketing costs required to take a premium brand, like Teupen, to market and we no longer see this as viable. So, we have taken the decision to withdraw funding from our Teupen sales and marketing activities, in order to apply this to other business interests and search for new opportunities.”

“Ranger will however continue with service and parts support for the products already sold into the market. We have many loyal customers who value the support that we give them, we believe we excel in this area and we pledge our on-going support to our customers. We have asked the Teupen Service department to continue to support us with this and we hope they can see the benefit in doing so.”

“We have been very proud to work with Teupen over the last seven years and this has been a difficult decision to make, but a necessary one given the on-going economic climate.”

Vertikal Comment

This is not a huge surprise, much is changing at Teupen at the moment in terms of policies and staff, the company is on a push to do more direct sales in several regions. In order to do the range justice and gain a living margin on such a premium priced product requires a good deal of sales and marketing expenditure.

To commit funds to this in an uncertain market with a manufacturer which is going through a major revision to all of its strategies and agreements and partnerships is an exceptionally high risk investment.

With this in mind Ranger understandably pulled out of this year’s Vertikal Days and Teupen did not ‘step into the breach’, leaving the brand unrepresented. It is likely that the manufacturer will now consider employing a salesman for the UK and Ireland, but will need to ensure that it has decent product support coverage for products it sells going forward.