CTE UK celebrates 21 years
02 May 2023
CTE’s subsidiary in the UK is celebrating its 21st anniversary.
It was March 2002 when CTE president Lorenzo Cipriani founded CTE UK, opening the UK market to the manufacturer’s unique range of truck mounted aerial platforms, with the idea of replicating the business model that has been a success in Italy.
The introduction of two models on 3.5 tonne trucks, the 16m working height ZED 17 and 20m working height ZED 20, CTE says it succeeded where others had failed, in offering an articulated platform on a truck, in a market mainly focused on telescopic platforms
Also new to the market, says CTE were light duty 3.5 tonne vehicles rented as ‘self-drive’. “At that time the truck mounted platform market in the UK was dominated by booms on van and telescopic arms for heavy duty trucks.”
With this new vision, CTE says it became market leader and maintains a dominant role in the market today, culminating in 2022 with a record year for orders and long term contracts with the largest three rental compaies in the UK: AFI, Nationwide and Smart Platforms.
Early pioneers
From left: Marco Govoni, CTE sales and marketing director; Lorenzo Cipriani, CTE Executive Vice President; Jeff Eisenberg and Chris Searle, Smart Platforms; Craig Rooke, CTE UK Managing Director; Andy Burt, Smart Platforms; Brian King and Peter Pemberton, CTE UK founders; Graeme Hill, former CTE UK managing director.
Pioneers at the beginning were Brian King, Peter Ellis, Peter Pemberton and Lorenzo Cipriani, with the company first managed by Brian King, then by Graeme Hill and now by Craig Rooke who has occupied the role of managing director since 2018.
On 15 March CTE UK welcomed its founders and managers in a special reunion to celebrate 21 years since the formation of the company - postponing its 20 year anniversary due to the Covid restrictions at the time, and culminating in an anniversary dinner in a well-known Italian restaurant in Enderby.
Lorenzo Cipriani, CTE Group president, added, “It has been an honor to meet again all the people who have grown CTE UK in the last 21 years. And now I’m very proud to see CTE as a top brand in the UK.”
Craig Rooke, current managing director of CTE UK, said, “To have a commitment 21 years ago to the UK and Ireland by opening a local subsidiary is a huge compliment to Lorenzo Cipriani. Our aim today from the great work set by my predecessors is to keep building on that and CTE UK has a fantastic team of people which we have developed and grown and without their dedication to support to our customers we could not be the leading supplier in the UK and Ireland.”
