07.10.2014

Company fraudulently claims IPAF membership

French aerial lift manufacturer EGI Platforms has been caught fraudulently claiming to be an IPAF member.

According to IPAF, the company fraudulently represented itself as being a current member in a quotation for work in Brazil that required all tendering companies to be members of IPAF. A letter was produced in support of the tender which appeared to be from IPAF and confirmed that EGI was a long standing member of IPAF. The letter was a forgery and was not issued by an official of IPAF.

EGI Platforms was an early IPAF member, and one of its former managers – Claude Guillou – served as president between 1992 and 1994. The struggling company was acquired in 2006 by firefighting specialist Gimaex and then went into administration shortly afterwards. Gimaex resuscitated the business, restructured it and since then it has grown gradually to a point where last year it had revenues of over €8 million, and all of which was for export, largely to the Middle East and developing countries. It is currently investing over €1 million in its plant near Charleville-Mézières.

IPAF pointed out that the its Council expelled EGI from the federation in 2007 for non-payment of membership dues and that it is not currently a member. A list of all current members can be found at: www.ipaf.org.
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A selection of Egi platforms