Largest order for Tanfield Group

8:21am Friday 16th May 2008

A DIVISION of zero-emission vehicle maker The Tanfield Group has secured its biggest order with a UK rental company.

UpRight Powered Access has won a £1.4m order from GT Access to provide a fleet of 150 aerial work platforms - often called cherry pickers.

It is the second major boost in a week for the group, based in Washington, Wearside, after its Smith Electric Vehicles division struck its largest contract to create the world's biggest electricpowered fleet for distribution company TNT.

Tanfield - which will move into a second North-East factory in the next four months, creating up to 1,000 jobs - saw profits treble to £11.9m last year, with turnover doubling to £123m. The company is predicting further growth this year.

Its powered access division has an order book worth £101m for this year, with the contract adding to that.

The order from GT Access, which has strong presence in the Midlands and South-West, is the largest fleet of machines purchased by a UK rental company since UpRight Powered Access changed owners in June 2006.

The 150 scissor lifts and speed level models will replace a smaller fleet of UpRight machines that GT Access has operated for seven years, increasing its size by 15 per cent from its level of 130 lifts.

Richard Tindale, sales and marketing director at UpRight Powered Access, said: "Winning fleet orders of this size, from well-regarded rental companies such as GT Access, demonstrates how far UpRight has come in less than two years.

"We are winning significant rental business because of the strength of our combined offering.

UpRight provides a full range of high quality aerial lifts and sales arm has the comprehensive sales and service network to support them anywhere in the country."

Jonathan Till, managing director of GT Access, said: "They are great machines that deliver a good return on investment for us. But we only re-invested in a new UpRight fleet after being completely convinced that Up- Right Powered Access provides a first rate after-sales service.

"Product support and spare parts availability is excellent and that proved to be the dealmaker."

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