01.11.2017

TCA adds to sales team

Danish spider lift manufacturer TCA Lift has appointed Craig Rooke as business development director. The initial focus will be on the UK and Ireland where the company will now sell direct. He will continue to be based in the UK and will report to sales director Brian Falck Schmidt.

Rooke joins the company from German spider lift manufacturer Teupen where he has been sales director for the UK and Ireland for the past five years, during which time he established direct a sales and service operation, opening a UK facility in 2016. Prior to his time wth Teupen he ran his own sales business - ASX - for three years.

He began his equipment industry career almost 20 years ago as an account manager with GT Access, moving to JCB in 2006 as a sales engineer with responsibility for telehandlers before joining Haulotte UK in 2008 as Southern region account manager. He established ASX after leaving Haulotte in 2010.
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Craig Rooke

The move follows the acquisition of a majority stake in TCA by Dansk Generationsskifte in July. The new owner is looking to expand the business and is already investing more in engineering and development, expanding the production facilities and in building a stronger sales, distribution and product support network to follow the additional capacity.

Chief executive and co-owner Finn Schlitterlau said: “Our plans are to grow the business and our market shares, and in order to do this, we need to add to the sales team. We were looking at the market and the person that stood out to us was Craig Rooke with his broad range of experience in the equipment industry. We consider his reputation and knowledge within the industry very important to get a stronger ‘foothold’ in the UK/Ireland and further develop our business for our Falcon products internationally. Therefore we went after our man and I am delighted to welcome Craig on board our TCA Lift team.”

“He will have a focus initially on the UK and Ireland market as this is a very big and important area for the Falcon lifts and this means we will now be selling directly into this regions. At the same time Brian Falck Schmidt takes on the role of sales director responsible for our overall sales activities. With these new significant actions and more to come, we have initiated plans and steps to take our Falcon products into the next level.”
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(L-R) Brian Falck Schmidt, Craig Rooke and Finn Schlitterlau

Rooke added: “I am very much honoured the company came after me and once I heard the enthusiasm and plans by the board it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. The owners have a clear vision and direction of where they want to take the business and this aligns with my aspirations as well as the chance of working with a legend in the spider lifts market in the name of Brian Falck Schmidt so I very much look forward to taking on this role.”

Vertikal Comment

This looks like an excellent move on the part of TCA. Rooke struggled to adapt to working with a manufacturer at Haulotte UK, but then flourished with Teupen where the high end spider lift market seemed a good match for his abilities and experience. Many of the ingredients that seemed to suit him at Teupen - such as being a smaller privately held business, with a strong technically orientated ethos and high quality product - are also present with TCA.

The manufacturer has also added more mainstream spider lifts to its well-known atrium type models, while making all of its machines easier to operate and service, in order to make them better suited to full range rental fleets. With more sales firepower on board the company can spread that message more widely and all being well, reap the rewards. Expect the company to add a smaller spider lift model or two in the year ahead, while it also looks to expand sales of its larger machines in the rental sector.