11.04.2008

Manitou and Russon part company

Manitou UK has announced that is has reached an amicable agreement with Russon Access to end their sales agreement in the UK.

In a short statement issued this morning Manitou said:
“This decision will enable Manitou UK to further expand their market penetration for the ManiAccess range of powered access platforms.”

Tony Hobbs, product manager for ManiAccess at Manitou UK added: “We have continually grown the sales of ManiAccess over the last few years and are moving onto the next stage of our strategy to meet customer demands for a dedicated nationwide after sales network, providing a first class support, through the existing Manitou dealer network”.

Alan Russon of Russon Access could not be reached for comment this morning. Manitou UK recently appointed ex Russon collaborator, Russell Rowley and his new business R2 Access to help sell its access products through the Manitou UK dealer network.

Vertikal Comment

Alan Russon and Manitou began collaborating in early 2005, when Russon Access was a trading division of Gamble Jarvis. The arrangement allowed Russon to sell to access rental companies in the UK, at competitive prices.

Manitou dealers retained the right to sell to customers within their territories and Toyota forklift dealers sold the products to industrial end users.

After several years of trying to penetrate the UK powered access rental industry without having made a significant impact, the deal with Russon rapidly yielded results.

When Gamble Jarvis was sold, Allan Russon departed and established his own business- Russon Access Platforms Ltd. Manitou and Holland Lift both moved to the new company.

The agreement with Manitou was a hybrid arrangement which had Manitou UK holding the sales inventory and spare parts as well as covering routine service support.

Russon handled sales to access rental companies and helped organise or co-ordinate emergency technical support etc. The arrangement worked well, in that it avoided duplicate overheads allowing more competitive pricing.

The arrangement also allowed Manitou to have the benefits of a direct sale relationship with access rental companies, while still able to claim it was working though a dealer, a policy it sticks to rigidly.

The three year partnership with Russon has put Manitou on the map and allowed it to win a substantial foot hold in the UK access market.

Distribution deals such as this rely on close relationships and trust between the two parties, which can be hard to maintain over the long term, as personnel and economic conditions change.

Relations between the two appeared to become strained earlier this year with Manitou appointing Russell Rowley's new business to sell access products through its dealers. The purchase of 25 percent of Russon by Holland Lift probably did not help either?

Manitou’s challenge now will be to maintain the gains it has made over the past three years and hopefully take it to another stage and build on that success through sales via its dealer network.

Russon on the other hand will surely want to replace the Manitou boom line with a manufacturer that not only does not conflict with its Holland Lift scissor products, but that sits well alongside them, in terms of build quality as Manitou did.