Grove Manlift president Joe Danules reaffirmed his company's commitment to its alliance with Skyjack, defusing speculation that the marketing agreement between the two aerial work platform manufacturers had run into obstacles.

"Any rumor that [the alliance] has been discontinued is not true," Danules told RER. "Jos Wintermans, the president and CEO of Skyjack, and I are meeting regarding the alliance and should have a statement clarifying everything very shortly."

Guelph, Ontario-based Skyjack and Shady Grove, Pa.-based Grove announced a "far-reaching strategic alliance" in February. The agreement called for joint marketing, selling and providing product support for North American rental customers and joint supply and manufacture of scissors and booms. It includes agreement for distribution of each company's products through their respective distribution channels. Officials stated, at the time of the agreement, that final negotiations would be completed by April.

Rumors that the agreement was in danger surfaced in the aerial industry last month. Acknowledging the rumors, Danules said: "These kinds of relationships are similar to dating - some days are good, some are bad. There have been a few days when it wasn't looking good. We have also been meeting jointly with large and small customers, getting feedback about what the alliance should look like."

Concerns have been fueled by layoffs at Grove of key personnel in engineering, sales and marketing in recent weeks, as well as restructuring at Skyjack. Danules said the changes at Grove were part of a long-planned internal reorganization.