Tanfield poised for a good 2012

The 2011 end of year results for Tanfield, Snorkel's parent company, indicate that 2012 will be the year the company enjoys an upturn in business. At the end of 2011 the company's order book was up 296% (to £30.5 million) compared to the same time in 2010 and although Tanfield enjoyed an 11% increase in turnover (£48.3 million) compared to 2010, the company still made an operating loss of £14.99 million although this was reduced by 5% from the 2010 figures.

Jon Pither, chairman of Tanfield, said, "Demand for aerial lifts began to return in key markets during 2011 and grew as the year progressed, clearly demonstrated by the order book we brought into 2012.

"Bottlenecks within the supply chain slowed our rate of growth, but Tanfield still made good progress towards its near-term break-even target. The Company has recently raised additional funds to eliminate significant supply chain constraints and the Board is confident that this will accelerate Tanfield's growth in 2012."

Tanfield reported that a return to growth in the equipment rental and plant hire sector in 2011 drove renewed appetite for aerial work platforms. However, supply chains struggling to regain capacity were instrumental in the demand for machines outstripping supply.

Chief executive officer Darren Kell said, "Customers began to return in key markets in early 2011 and we delivered an increase in sales of 25% in the first half. Demand further increased in the second half of the year, but we were unable to accelerate our production capacity due to weakness in the industry's supply chain. This is evidenced both in our sales growth for the year and the £30.5m order book we carried into 2012 - almost four times the order book at the end of 2010."

As previously reported by Access International in February this year the Tanfield Group raised £12 million after placing 29.2 million new shares on the stock market with the intention of using the cash injection to, "alleviate the bottlenecks within our supply chain allowing us to increase throughput, reduce lead times for customers and generate purchasing efficiencies."

In addition both the UK and USA manufacturing facilities are recruiting substantial numbers of staff and a new production configuration at Vigo Centre in the UK is expected to further improve manufacturing capacity.