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Brad Boehler has been part of the Skyjack

team for the past 13 years, starting in

the role of Product Safety Manager and

working his way to the top to become

President of Skyjack four years ago.

Linamar is the parent company, an

automotive parts supplier.

“Skyjack has a great policy of promoting

from within. And wherever possible we

give our own people opportunity and

greater challenges,” Brad said.

“For Skyjack we are seeing a definite

move out of the GFC; we’ve had double

digit growth for the past five to six years.

We’ve become the third largest aerial

work platform (AWP) manufacturer in the

world and the largest scissor lift producer

in the world. We make more scissor lift

units than anybody else,” Brad said.

“We do two things at Skyjack. Number

one: we give customers ROI (return on

investment) which is achieved through a

competitive international price, low cost

of ownership and residual value on the

machinery. These things have to make

sense to our customers.

“Number two: be easy to do business

with. There is lots of competition in

access; similar cost, performance etc.

It can be hard to differentiate between

manufacturers sometimes. But Skyjack

is easy to do business with; we solve

customer problems.

“This is hard to do and maintain as you

grow, mainly because as it grows, a

company gets more process driven but

we maintain our focus on our two core

business aims.

“’Pick the easier path’ or our credo

of ‘Simply Easier’ is built into all our

products and support and service. We

live that mantra; and we are doing all we

need to develop new products and grow.

“Our mantra of ‘Simply Reliable’ has

been about the absence of technology

to avoid complex systems so Skyjack

machines are not complicated or difficult

to maintain. We have basic hydraulic and

electrical principles so it is easy to service

our machines. They are not computerised

and every machine features the same

wiring and has the same controls. This

streamlines maintenance, requires less

Simply reliable means easy to do business with

At HIRE16, President of Skyjack, Brad Boehler sat down with Hire and Rental News for a

chat about Skyjack’s thoughts on the access industry, on manufacturing and where Brad

sees the access market moving into the future.

investment in components and develops

consistency within the fleet.

“This is not, however, a viable solution

forever. There will come a day when we

need to be more technologically complex,

but we will work on concepts to keep

‘simply reliable’ servicing, maintenance

and fleet management,” Brad said.

Making markets

“Skyjack’s plan is to be a $1bn company

by 2020. We have that goal and are

successfully moving towards it.

“In the recession we became aware we

were fairly dependent on large rental

companies in the US and when they

stopped buying, we changed tactic to

focus on the smaller rental companies

in the US. This included putting more

people on the ground. More sales people

means more customer contact and in turn

means more support staff.

“A while ago we realised we needed to

be in more markets. Our growth in the UK

has been phenomenal; but we see we can

do more in continental Europe.

“This year the market seems pretty

flat in most markets. It is down a lot in

some places. Brazil, for example, did well

initially but now the market there is flat.

Same for the North American market – it

is flat at the moment, after some years

of substantial growth. Europe is up a

little; Australia is down a little. The Asian

market is up a little in various parts but

the Asian market is where we see we can

make great strides in the future.”

Brad was following his visit to Australia

and HIRE16 with a tour of Asia to see

how the company can develop further

in these markets. Currently Skyjack sells

into China via a dealer arrangement

in Shanghai; to Korea through another

dealership arrangement as well as in

Singapore and Taiwan. The company also

sells into Japan.

“There’s opportunity to do much better

in these markets. The Chinese market is

quite small but has immense potential.

Just when it will get off the ground is the

question – and open to debate. The whole

world has their eye on Asia. It doesn’t

take a genius to see where the population

centres are.

“Those less developed nations and

markets will grow and expand. In China,

the cost of labour is increasing, so

traditional labour methods will start to

cost more. This is where efficiencies will

rely on technology to achieve the same

output as human labour.

“Now it’s a choice of how to service those

markets while they grow to the stage

they need us, and all without wasting

a lot of money doing it. Currently, the

Asian market does not represent a large

percentage of Skyjack’s overall business.”

And for the future?

“Currently there is still a lot of

construction industry work around

the world; this is driving growth and

opportunity and bodes well for our

industry.

"It is not far-fetched to think if things go

badly in China for an extended period, it

could lead to another global economic

downturn. For the past few quarters

there definitely has been a lessening of

what has been recent good times. Having

said that, I still hate to predict doom and

gloom when the work is out there.”

Visit: www.skyjack.com

Brad Boehler, President of Skyjack

27

ACCESS IN ACTION • AUGUST 2016

ACCESS IN ACTION