12.10.2007

Max Access wakes up

Max Access the company that introduced the original Spider lift to the UK has been the butt of negative rumours over the past month or two concerning its future.

It is certainly true that what had been a powered access pioneer had, over the past few years, become a sleepy business resting on its laurels and dining off the capital built up in the 1980’s and 90’s.

After sales manager Phil Orwin and the company parted company many considered that owner Nigel Baker would sell up or worse still be forced to shut up shop.

Baker called the Vertikal.Net offices this week to say that the such rumours could not be further from the truth, he confirmed that after having taken a back seat for many years he is playing now playing an active role in the business, restructuring the way the company is organised and planning to expand, with the aim to return to the proactive business it originally was.

Baker said: “We are going through a restructuring of the Company following several years of the business not doing as well as it should have, due to the fact that I took more of a back seat role, which has now been addressed. I will now be leading the company from the front as I did in the past glory days of Max Access, and with the team I now have around me I am confident that we will go from strength to strength.”

“In the near future we will be revamping our image and logo, to have a complete fresh start; we have already revamped our website and are launching a regular newsletter to keep our customers informed of new developments as we build the business.”

“We are the original Spider company in the UK, and still have the largest fleet of original spider access platforms in the world for hire. We have been around for 25 years now with a proven track record and we 'aint' going anywhere but UP”.

Vertikal Comment

When Max Access started trading over 25 years ago it blazed an impressive trail launching the unheard of spider lifts from Denmark selling both the concept and the product.

For many years the UK was Falck Schmidt’s largest market thanks to the efforts of Max Access. The company’s logo, featuring a Labrador dog, possibly called Max? became as well known in the UK access business as that of JLG thanks to its aggressive marketing programme.

Having decided to remain a specialist rather than become a full line powered access company Max Access, followed its main supplier, Falck Schmidt, into what appeared to be a state of sleepy complacency.

The company was thus caught napping when other Spider lift producers entered the market, first of all Palazzani, with a very similar product, followed by Teupen and then a whole raft of smaller simpler machines.

Instead of benefiting from the massive interest in spider lifts the company was sidelined.

As Baker says, the company still has a significant fleet of specialist spider lifts and few know this market better than Max Access. The challenge will be selecting the strategies and direction for its expansion plans. In order to regain its position it will surely need to add some complimentary product lines? At least on the sales side.

Quoting Baker himself "Watch this space!"