Telford, England-based Independent Parts and Service Ltd. and Huntingdon, England-based Access Platform Sales Ltd last week announced they will merge their European operations to create the largest independent full-service distributor of powered access equipment in the United Kingdom. The new company will offer nationwide sales of new and used machines and full after-sales support including parts, mobile service and workshop repair for a comprehensive range of manufacturer’s products in the access industry.
Since its creation 10 years ago IPS has grown to become the largest independent parts and service provider in the U.K., with revenues in excess of £8 million (about U.S. $12.9 million) and is the country’s official parts and service provider for several major manufacturers including Genie and Snorkel. APS has a 25-year track record of sales and support for a range of manufacturers which, combined with its used equipment operation, generates similar revenues to IPS.
The newly combined organization brings together IPS’s parts sales and APS’s strength in used and new machine sales, especially for the Genie, Hinowa, Omme, Youngman and Niftylift brands. This, combined with the mobile service engineer teams of both companies, creates a true distribution organization for powered access unmatched in scale and scope in the U.K. and probably in Europe, the companies said.
“The strengths and attributes of IPS match perfectly with those of APS to create an organization of huge potential,” said Tony Jennings, managing director and principal shareholder of IPS. “We firmly believe that the access industry has matured to the stage where manufacturers can no longer afford, or need, to invest heavily in their own support structures in every country. They need strong, reliable and comprehensive sales and support operations – and the combined IPS / APS operation can deliver just that on an independent basis.”
APS’s chairman and founder Jim Daintith added, “For manufacturers seeking significant market penetration, finding and employing sufficient numbers of truly capable individuals for sales and technical roles is extremely challenging, time consuming – and very expensive! We are fortunate to have collected together over the years strong teams in both APS and IPS, and their complementary talents can now provide manufacturers with service levels far in excess of what they could realistically achieve by creating their own local organization.”
In addition to Jennings and Daintith, the directors of the combined organization are Kevin Shadbolt of IPS for operations and Richard Tindale of APS for sales and marketing. For the time being trading will continue under both the APS and IPS brands from existing locations but over the coming months the two organizations will be fully integrated. Further news on branding and organization structure will be issued after consultations with employees and trading partners.
