Finning becomes new JLG dealer in strategic move

Finning Aerial Access, a division of Finning Materials Handling, is the new dealer for JLG Industries' range of aerial access equipment in Wales and the West Midlands.

As part of a strategic decision to introduce new product lines to Finning's Materials Handling operation - and to take advantage of the access sector's recent surge in growth - this agreement will see Finnning selling, renting and supporting JLG access products across a number of industrial and commercial applications including the plant hire market.

Asked about its focus on the plant hire sector, which some in the industry view as similar to CAT dealer Leverton's controversial decision to set up BCP Plant Hire in 1995, Finning's customer operations director David Collier said: "There's no correlation between the two.

"This move is not intended to compete with mainstream civil engineer plant hirers."

As well as claiming that Finning's opposition to Leverton's controversial action in 1995 still stands, materials handling operation's general manager Bernard Auton told CJ that its access operation was totally separate from its traditional civil engineering activities.

Auton also said: "Finning is and has been in the business of hire for sometime."

As well as hiring out lift trucks he revealed that Finning's Power Systems Division has been hiring out generators for more than 10 years.

Focusing on the rental activity of Finning's materials handling operation he commented: "Rental represents 70 per cent of Finning's materials handling business," and added: "The percentage of equipment placed on short and long term rental has grown year on year for the last five years."

Under the operational agreement with JLG, customers in Finning's sales territory will be able to buy, contract hire or short term rent JLG access equipment through Finning's distribution network.

"The new dealership" according to a company spokesman, "positions Finning to enter the access market at a time when the industry is set for rapid growth and sees predictions that 45 per cent of all access applications will eventually use powered equipment. Currently, only 10 per cent of access requirements in the UK are satisfied using powered access equipment."

Finning is not alone in its interest in access. Hewden Stuart and Sheriff Group are just two UK plant hirers already strong in the civils sector who have made significant investment in their access divisions in the last couple of years.