All Interviews & Profiles Articles

It is one of the scaffolding industry's biggest success stories of the last decade: how a Chinese MBA student built one of the biggest sellers of scaffolding in North America. And now, Wei Chen, the 37 year-old founder of Sunshine Enterprise, has his sights set on Europe.

Jon Geir Sigurbjörnsson believes that he was responsible for bringing the first new scissor lift into Iceland: his father had been importing second hand machines but Mr Sigurbjörnsson encouraged him to buy new.

Web Exclusive: Korean AWP manufacturer, Junjincsm, plans to use the expertise gained in the shipbuilding industry to expand into other markets.

Access equipment manufacturer Beijing JingCheng is preparing to enter the European market -- by learning it. Patrick Hill talked to chairman and chief executive officer Su Jie at APEX in Maastricht.

Brodrene Jorgensen AS is celebrating 20 years in the access industry growing from a small company based in Bergen repairing access platforms for regional rental companies to an important dealer for Niftylift and Skyjack in Norway.

Swing stages are not necessarily simple devices. Above is one custom-designed in 1986 for use by McNally's Crane Hire in the Republic of Ireland. It is slung from a crane periodically to clean a church spire near the company's Monaghan, Ireland depot. The stage has clamshell platforms and a hydraulic motor and ram. It cost approximately €125000.

McNally's Crane Hire in Ireland has been renting cranes for years. It will take into its fleet by the end of this year its first aerial work platform - a 103 m working height Wumag Elevant 1000.

George Marriott has been renting aerial platforms in Scotland, UK, for the last 10 years. Now he is ready to expand his Access Plus business into other parts of the UK. Murray Pollok spoke to Mr Marriott and fellow director Dave Hall at the company's head office in Stevenston.

We are all speculating about what the future holds for the access industry so Access International asked some of the industry's senior figures to share their insights. They tell us what their predictions are for the immediate future and the coming five years.

The Demonstration Hall at Alimak Hek, Middelbeers, Netherlands is used as both a sales aid and for training. The company has used the space to demonstrate the various ways that components can be put together to create different mast climbing solutions.

Alimak Hek has dramatically increased its sales revenue since 2004. Maria Hadlow met some of the management team to discover what has driven the company to such heights.

The 4500 shipments which TVH makes daily throughout Europe flow from its main warehouse, part of a 60000 m2 facility in Waregem, Belgium. Shipments enter the hands of international freight couriers from six consolidation sorters, which separate and aggregate picked items into 3000 box locations and 540 rollout tracks for weighing, packing and labelling.

Why has the world's leading supplier of spare parts for fork lift trucks moved into the access spare parts business?

A customised access solution delivered in just 90 days may seem a wild ambition but, that's just what Elliott Equipment aims to achieve.

Lavendon Group now has 21000 aerial platforms and 1400 employees...and over 10 different brands. Murray Pollok reports on the rebranding plans that will see it focus on just four names. Plus, we report on how the business is performing in certain key markets.

Tim Ford, president of Terex Corp's Aerial Work Platform business, talks to Murray Pollok about the North American market, globalisation of production and the access aftermarket.

Is the access industry doing enough to attract the talented engineers it needs to sustain competitive advantage? Paul Adorian managing director of Powered Access Certification Ltd (PAC) challenges the market to invest in the future.