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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
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ACCESS IN ACTION • AUGUST 2016
ACCESS IN ACTION