Plans for Carelift

In its quest to become a full-line aerials manufacturer, Skyjack decided it wanted to make telehandlers as well. It fulfilled this wish earlier than expected by recently acquiring privately-owned Canadian manufacturer Carelift, located in a small facility at Breslau just half an hour's drive from Skyjack's Guelph headquarters.

The Carelift handlers are very North American in style, and will not find much acceptance in Europe – at least not in their present form – but Skyjack's group president, Ken McDougall, tells Access International that they had looked at European-based machines and says “I think we have made the right choice.”

The plan is for the manufacturing to shift to Guelph fairly soon, either to one of Skyjack's existing AWP facilities or to a new production space in the city. Mr McDougall says his aim is to triple production levels – currently 230-250 machines annually – within the next three of four years.

Dave Stewart, Skyjack's vice president of marketing and sales, says the focus will be on Carelift's existing markets in North America, where it already has strong dealerships in certain US territories and in Western Canada (Hertz is a dealer there). However, says Mr Stewart; “Much of the US market is largely untapped – we can address the current markets that are being missed.”

As far as branding is concerned, the well-accepted ZoomBoom name will be kept, although over time Carelift is likely to make way for the Skyjack name.