Aerial lift manufacturer Genie Industries boosted production 60 percent in 2011, Matt Fearon, vice president and general manager of Terex aerial work platforms, Americas regions, told the Columbia Basin Herald this week. Fearon said the growth was primarily driven by North American equipment rental companies replacing equipment. Last year Genie added a couple of hundred workers at its Moses Lake, Wash., plant, as well as a couple hundred employees at its Redmond, Wash., headquarters. The additional workers were mostly in the production area, such as welders, painters and material specialists.
Speaking with RER at the Rental Show in New Orleans last month, Fearon said the market came back much stronger than anticipated in North America in 2011, with independent rental only held back, in some cases, by financing issues.
“We’re seeing it better on all fronts,” Fearon told RER. “This time last year, the Gulf Coast was very strong, as was anything oil-related. Now it’s better in the eastern seaboard, the upper Midwest, we’re seeing activity everywhere. California, Florida and Arizona, markets that were really down, we’re starting to see them do better, it’s encouraging.
“These are the good times. We’re a couple of years into a five- to seven-year upcycle. I think the next couple of years are going to be really good for Genie and good for the industry and we need to take advantage of it. We need to make the industry healthier from a manufacturers’ standpoint and the rental companies’ standpoint, these are the years we’ve been waiting for. Last year it felt like ‘I think we’re turning the corner.’ Now I feel we have and we’re going to be in for a good run.”
