A new company has been established by three former Holland Lift employees to provide replacement parts, service and technical support for the more than 9,000 Holland Lift scissor lifts still working on a day to day basis worldwide.
The three key individuals are led by former engineering manager Tjaco Sussenbach, who has also been involved with the Sky High product line after it was acquired by Holland Lift in 2012 and the after sales operation set up to support both Sky High and Holland Lift products after that. The other two include former service engineer and manager Tristan Riet and Roel Loos former final inspection engineer at Holland lift for almost 34 years. Retired Holland Lift veteran Wim Roos is also working with the team as an "ambassador" for the business.
The Holland Lift support trio: (L-R) Roel Loos, Tristan Riet and Tjaco Sussenbach
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Sussenbach is now a shareholder in the reformed Sky High production business that was acquired back from Holland Lift in 2015. Its other shareholders are Erik Aghten, the founder of Sky High and Wenjie Zhang of Yacontee, the Holland Lift dealer for China. Since 2016 the company has been building specialist 12 and 13 metre working height self-propelled boom lifts built as custom versions for applications such as window cleaning, tree pruning and rail maintenance.
Retired Holland Lift veteran Wim Roos is also working with the team
Last year production of the Sky High moved from Belgium where Aghten was overseeing it, to the Heerhugowaard in the Netherlands, close to Hoorn where the Holland Lift production facility was located. Production is now managed by Sussenbach.
A new Sky High roar rail boom lift at the company’s facility in Langedijk near Alkmaar in the Netherlands
Sussenbach joined Holland Lift in 1998 and worked with the company until its closure in January. When Sky High was divested in 2015 he was allowed to acquire a stake in the business and split his time between the two companies – four days for Holland Lift and one day for Sky High. Two years ago, that changed to three days with Holland Lift and two with the Belgian business.
New parts and support operation
The Holland Lift parts, and service trio will initially work as a division within Sky High BV but are considering setting up the Holland Lift related operations as a separate corporation as a separate corporate entity – ‘Susco Service BV’, but that is likely to be some way down the line. The company has already started working with and number of Holland Lift owners in the Benelux region as well as Neil Jerrim of South East Access in the UK. It now has sufficient resources in place to serve customers over a wider area.
Speaking of this new venture Sussenbach said: “I have been involved in design and engineering of most of the Holland Lift machines over the past 25 years together with the late Martin Haak, founder of Holland Lift. So, I know what type of things require attention or replacement after a long period of use, and where to find the right components and solutions etc. But most importantly with my two long term colleagues I think we have the A-Team when it comes to helping and supporting existing Holland Lift owners.”
For those looking for help and support with their Holland Lift products, no matter what it is, their email address is [email protected] and the web site address www.skyhighlift.nl
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