04.01.2008

European Expansion for Skyjack

Skyjack, the world’s fourth largest self propelled aerial lift manufacturer, has been a major player in the North American market for some time but in Europe its only consistently strong market presence has been in the UK and Ireland.

That is changing fast though, the company has completed its move into new purpose-built European headquarter premises in Oswestry, Shropshire. The new building includes a large office suite along with warehousing a replacement parts operation and an external yard.
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Skyjack's new European HQ

The facility will be the hub for Skyjack Europe’s sales, service support, finance and administration operations. The new premises will also carry out some final assembly work, install options and ship directly to newly opened company stores in Germany and Sweden.

The company acquired its Swedish distributor N-C Liftteknik AB/Nordic Lift in August as its Scandinavia base, while in Germany the company has employed Ingo Regenbrecht to open Skyjack Deutschland in Witten.

This week Yannick Borgel, previously with UpRight France, has started work with the company in order to head up its new French operation. Prior to Joining UpRight France in May Borgel spent six years with Genie France See UpRight returns to France
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Yannick Borgel

Vertikal Comment

Skyjack’s coverage of the European market has been patchy for many years reaching a low point when the company pulled all of its operations back to a UK base at the start of 2004. Since then its transatlantic shipments have grown rapidly, but largely on the back of its strong market position in the UK.

2007 is likely to be a record year for Skyjack Europe as it continues to expand its sales in the UK at the same time as it makes inroads into other markets. It has developed a strong reputation of being easy to deal with and is seen to be investing heavily in a personalised after sales support. Its new company stores elsewhere in Europe should help spread that reputation more widely.

If the trends it has established over the past 12 months continue Skyjack Europe could substantially exceed this year’s numbers in 2008, winning a few market share percentage points into the bargain.