11.07.2006

Tanfield appoints Master dealer for Germany

The Tanfield group, the new owners of UpRight Powered access equipment, has appointed Powerlift of Germany as the master dealer for UpRight Powered Access products.

Powerlift is owned and managed by Holger Johan, who worked for UpRight Deutschland for many years until establishing Powerlift in 2003.
Please register to see all images

Holger Johan of Powerlift

Powerlift offers a wide range of access equipment, including, until now - MEC scissor lifts, Instant alloy scaffold towers, SDM-PedaLift, (the Instant Pedal Lift / Pedalift) and UpRight aerial lifts. The company has in the past also worked as an agent for Independent Parts and Service the UK based parts and service provider.

The agreement between Tanfield and Powerlift provides for Powerlift to establish and service a network of local dealers who will sell UpRight products to end users and regional rental companies. Powerlift will hold a large inventory of UpRight spare parts and maintain a stock of lifts for the German market.

Major rental accounts will retain the option to buy UpRight products directly from Tanfield, should they prefer.

Tanfield is looking at appointing master dealers in its largest European markets, rather than setting up its own sales and service operations.

The aim of this strategy, says the company, is to focus its own resources on “Making significant breakthroughs in manufacturing efficiencies, in terms of both quality and cost”

Vertikal Comment

This is a sensible move for Tanfield, its has some major opportunities within its UpRight acquisition, but also an enormous amount to do if it is going to achieve what it wants with the brand.

Germany is a very large, diverse and fragmented market and impossible to cover well with a single distributor. The choice facing any importer is to either establish a wholly owned master dealer, which takes time, is fraught with challenges and is not cheap; Or to appoint an independent master dealer.

The usual problem with a master dealer is trying to get the market to bear the cost of a two stage distribution policy. However a leaner business such as Power-Lift, supported by the manufacturer, can keep any extra cost, to the minimum.

Many smaller local German companies are also prepared to pay a little more for the support of a good local dealer that they know and trust.

This move could work relatively well for Tanfield and it will leave its management free to concentrate on the many other challenges that the group has on its plate with the UpRight acquisiton.