18.01.2006

Nationwide invest £14 million

Nationwide Access, Europe’s largest powered access rental company. has announced plans to invest more than £14 million in new aerial lifts and support vehicles during the first half of 2006.

The company has placed orders worth around £7 million for a total of 174 new self-propelled booms, scissor lifts and truck mounted lifts with Genie, Skyjack and CTE.

The 23 new CTE truck mounts are the first for Nationwide and all on 3.5 tonne chassis, aimed at the self-drive market. The order is worth over £1 million. In a separate deal the company has ordered two CTE Z-32, 32 metre truck mounts on 7.5 tonne chassis.
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Nationwide is investing in diesel lifts such as large booms

The self-propelled order includes 50 Skyjack diesel scissor lifts, worth in excess of £1.5 million and 100 Genie booms and diesel scissor lifts with a value of £4 million.

Most of the new units will expand the existing fleet. “Very few of these are replacements”, said Nationwide Access’s marketing manager Scott McCall.

“We are growing the fleet by investing in the types of equipment that are in continuous demand and customers struggle to source easily. These are mostly large machines aimed at the expanding construction and refurbishment markets”.

The boom order includes four Genie Z135/70 articulated boom lifts with 43 metre working height.

The diesel scissors are aimed at the warehousing and cladding industries, which, says McCall are currently very buoyant.

A further £2 million of the spend will go on fleet refurbishment. The aim is to upgrade units that are now four to five years old with new control boxes, new baskets, and replacement of components that typically cause downtime, as well as upgrading paintwork where necessary.

Nationwide is spending £4.2 million of the investment on a fleet of 28 new purpose built DAF delivery trucks. The new vehicles include a custom built Shawtrack body, designed with input from 20 Nationwide drivers and incorporate real time tracking.

The aim is to bring more deliveries in house to help with its Pre-10, Pre-12 and Evening delivery plans, while ensuring the best quality of hand over to the user. The first units wil be delivered in early March and at a pace of three a week thereafter.

The balance of the investment is a £1 million spend on a new fleet of service engineers vans.

“This is a major investment aimed squarely at improving our product and service offerings to key access markets”, says McCall. “It will enable us to strengthen our position as the UK’s largest access specialist and will ensure that our customers continue to receive the best possible equipment and service wherever they are”.