INTERVIEW
20
ACCESS, LIFT & HANDLERS
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2014
Brad Boehler
, president
of Skyjack, talks to
Lindsey Anderson
about the
different challenges faced
in markets around the
world and the company’s
program of expansion.
they should sell new equipment
into the country. Korea is rich
with ship building, construction
manufacturers, car manufacturers
and other global entities; there’s
a large manufacturing base
established in the country. Skyjack
has had contract representation
in Korea for quite some time
(Cracknell focuses more on other
regions), but the market’s dominance with used
equipment versus new equipment might not
justify having boots on the ground.
“When you look at the used market, though,
we can funnel our equipment there and we
can capture a lot of parts sales,” Boehler
says. “Those two things – parts and better
representation – mean we will do something in
Korea in the not-so-distant future.”
Also on the boiler for Skyjack is more activity
in China and Japan.
“China is a struggle,” Boehler says. “It’s all
about figuring out who can sell what in China.”
Global ambitions
At the 2013 Rental Show, Brad
Boehler, Skyjack president, and
Sidney DeWay, Skyjack’s first
employee and son of Skyjack
co-founder Sidney DeWay Sr.,
stood atop the company’s
“throwback” scissor. Skyjack was
looking for the company’s oldest
operating scissor lift.
Simon Cracknell as its new director of business
development in Asia. Cracknell previously
worked with JLG Industries, Inc. as its senior
director of sales and customer support for
Northern Europe, but also lived in Singapore for
a number of months on assignment from JLG.
“We hired Simon there to help us in that
marketplace and help us understand if we could
and should be there,” Boehler says. “We’re
looking to see whether or not we’re going to
open a company store there.”
Boehler and his team want better
representation in Korea while considering if
S
kyjack ended 2013 with a bang.
The company reported strong
growth and an overall positive
first half of 2013; with revenues of
$320.3 million for the first six months,
up 10.5 percent over the same period
last year. Operating profits were $39.3
million, up a healthy 82.8 percent due
to strong sales of access equipment.
The Canadian-based company also
celebrated its first year anniversary
in Brazil; manufactured its 250,000th
machine; started a quest to find the
oldest Skyjack working scissor lift; and
opened two sales and service centers
in Scandinavia and Germany. One
would think Skyjack’s parent company,
Linamar, would be satisfied with its
progress – and it is – but it’s also
ready for a solid 2014.
“The rental industry hasn’t backfilled
all the non-activity they had for two
and a half years, so there’s still aged
fleet out there and there’s still fleet
replacement to be had, let alone real
growth,” says Brad Boehler, president,
Skyjack. “We will have growth next
year. There is traction for this idea that
more and more companies in North
America are looking at rental versus
capitalizing equipment, so that whole
trend seems to be driving growth.”
Boehler sees a number of avenues for Skyjack
to continue on its upward trend, including
opportunities in Japan, Korea, China and Brazil.
Worldwide markets
Skyjack has a “huge” fleet of used equipment
in Korea, Boehler says. “The used equipment
market in Korea has traditionally been big and
we know there’s a large number of Skyjack
units that live and work in that marketplace
today.”
Around Bauma 2013, Skyjack brought on
