17.06.2008

Scarborough out at Snorkel

Frank Scarborough, the chief operating officer of US based aerial lift manufacturer Snorkel, has left the company.

Snorkel is owned by the Tanfield group, which also owns UpRight, the two manufacturers share products, with UpRight starting to manufacture Snorkel boom lifts in the UK, while selling other Snorkel products under the UpRight brand in Europe.

Snorkel does the same for a number of UpRight products such as the TM12 and Speed Level.

Scarborough re-joined Snorkel in 2003 after a lengthy sojourn with UpRight which ended in 2000. He has been instrumental in the company’s recovery, after it was virtually shut down as previous owner Omniquip looked to dispose of it.

A group of investors led by Al Havlin purchased the business from Omniquip with few expectations but to sell off the company’s inventory and turn a modest profit.

Demand caused them to restart production in a small way and then as the business began to do better than they expected, they brought Scarborough on board to help build it up.

The business went from strength to strength as the market for aerial lifts rebounded from a slow period and as confidence in the Snorkel name began to return. Havlin and his colleagues sold the business to Tanfield around a year ago.

Calls and emails to Scarborough and Tanfield senior managers have remained unanswered or bounced back.

Vertikal Comment

It is hard to comment at such times, without the full facts and even then it is a sensitive issue. However there is no quesiton that Scarborough will be a serious loss to Tanfield, given his strong relationships with a number of major customers.

However these things happen and Tanfield will be well aware of the pro’s and cons of such a loss.

That is all we are saying until we know more.