24.07.2019

Martin Haak 1943 – 2019

We have received the sad news that Holland Lift founder Martin Haak passed away earlier this month.

Haak, a highly talented consulting engineer, established Holland Lift at the end of 1983 to design and build large, heavy duty self-propelled scissor lifts, producing the first units in 1984. The first customer was Hooghovens steel works, and its first production model the 41ft 125EV.

After going through some tough financial difficulties in the recession of the early 1990s, he sold the business to Germany’s MBB in 1993, and then acquired by Terex in 1998.
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Martin Haak with a Holland Lift Scissor lift

When Terex sold the business to Roger Tracey and Stoneham Equipment in 2002, Haak began to get involved with the company again, albeit in a minor way.

A talented musician, he was one of the unsung heroes of the European access business, a quiet man who might well have contributed a good deal more had his timing and circumstances been different. His company lives on however.