JLG AQUIRES POWER TOWER Could this be another ’special relationship?

Partnerships and friendships can be fragile as well as special, but for the founding partners of Power Towers, Brian King and Mark Richardson, their strength has always been in their close bond. Together in the access industry for almost 30 years, virtually since the commencement of their working days, it was inevitable that at some stage they would harness their combined knowledge and form a business that would go from strength to strength.

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And so it was in 2006, that Brian, Mark and Brian’s wife Sandra founded Power Towers Ltd, in the corner of a seed processing plant in Desford, Leicester!

From those humble beginnings, the first product, the Power Tower, was developed and built by a couple of guys fighting through the seed dust, with production hitting around 20 machines per month. Fast forward 8 years and Power Towers has moved twice and now occupies 30,000 sq ft and has an output of over 350 products/month, increasing monthly to meet the huge, and rapidly increasing, global hunger for Low-Level Powered Access (LLPA).

Brian stated “The overriding quest has always been, understand the applications, listen to the users and our customers and design and produce an ‘all you need in low-level powered access’ range of products. Each of our range of 7 products are class leading with a build quality that is second to none. This firmly plants us as market leaders with over 12,000 units sold and in use around the world to date.”

In recognition of the innovative design and engineering that characterizes Power Towers’ products, the company has won several awards including Product of the Year, International Association of Powered Access (IAPA) and Rental Product of the Year by the European Rental Association (ERA), for their ‘Non-Powered Powered Access’* product, the power free and eco-friendly Pecolift.

Great products played a huge part in the success but as Brian is keen to emphasise, “let’s not forget our people; much of where we are today can genuinely be attributed to the quality of our workforce. Power Towers has an excellent team that share a principled desire to produce the best products. But I have to pay particular honour to Sandra, she has managed the administration and operational side of the business to an exemplary level and we truly would not be where we are now without her and her team’s excellent work.”

Evidence of this success inevitably made the company an attractive proposition, particularly for a company that saw the rapidly increasing demand for LLPA and wanted a slice of the action, fast. JLG had one such sector missing from its product portfolio. Not only was it keen to deliver that missing segment, but needed a company that fitted to its own strengths and values too. Power Towers in turn needed a bigger player to help accelerate its production and distribution plans and with distribution and support in most corners of the world, JLG seemed like an obvious choice.

So on 1st  June, the partnership was born and Power Towers became part of the JLG group, with a deal that retained the strengths and ideals of a small company but harnessed the huge distribution network and financial backing of a global company.

Karel Huijser, JLG’s vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said Power Towers’ track record of innovation and the people behind the company were key to the deal, and added that JLG would be extremely careful with its new acquisition; “We were looking for a pioneer in the low level access space…you can be arrogant and say, ‘we can handle this ourselves’, but it is the people behind the product that are important. Product innovation is a very important part of this deal and will stay, and maybe we can accelerate that.

“We’re going to be very careful with all the decisions we make…Power Towers has been so successful, we want to make sure that continues.”

Brian described the two companies as a “perfect fit”, and said he and fellow directors and designer Mark Richardson and Sandra King, would remain with the business “for at least five years, maybe longer”. He said the jobs of the company’s 28 staff were secure as was the future of the two manufacturing facilities, and indeed more jobs will be created in the not too distant future.

“Mark and I are keen to stress we’re not intending to retire yet, we have many ideas we want to see to fruition and we fully intend to develop and market innovative LLPA products for many years to come and indeed have new products about to be launched in the coming months.

So despite the new ownership, Power Towers will remain true to its founding principles and ethos of producing the best LLPA machines and is still keen to emphasise its mantra “Work Smart – Power Towers, all you need in Low-Level Powered Access!”