Tanfield has finalized its $100 million acquisition of Snorkel International and plans to make the Snorkel brand its primary aerial work platform brand in North America. Snorkel last week announced that eight former UpRight models will be re-branded as Snorkel units, including electric scissorlifts, mast and articulated boom lifts targeted at the construction and industrial maintenance sectors, as well as its rough-terrain scissorlifts.

“The current Snorkel management team, led by Frank Scarborough, has done a superb job of developing Snorkel over the past few years,” said Darren Kell, chief executive of the Tanfield Group Plc. “Thanks to our investment, Snorkel can now instantly expand into a full line manufacturer and become as famous for its smaller electric lifts as it is for quality rough-terrain scissors and big booms.

“There are two immediate advantages for us. First, our research tells us that there is a pent-up demand within Snorkel’s customer base for this type of machine. Secondly, as a full-line manufacturer we would expect to be competing against other major aerial lift brands, in the tenders for large rental fleets.”

Some of the new machines will be built at Snorkel’s plants in Elwood and Wathena, Kan.

“We are delighted to be introducing production of these extra models to our Kansas plants, which will expand rapidly to accommodate the increase in output,” said Snorkel president Frank Scarborough. “We know our customers want a full range of high quality American-built machines and that is what we will give them. All eight of the new models are tried and tested in the UpRight range, both in North America and Europe, so we expect sales to be significant.”

The new models in the Snorkel range as the M1230 personnel lift (formerly the UpRight TM12); the S2633 scissorlift (formerly the UpRight X26UN); the SR2684SL, a diesel-powered rough-terrain vertical lift formerly the UpRight SL26SL; the SR3084SL, a larger version of the 2684; the M2032J mast lift, formerly the UpRight MB20; the MB2639 mast boom lift, formerly the UpRight MB26; and the AB38N and AB38W self-propelled booms, formerly the UpRight AB38N.