High and mighty

The UK telehandler market has been booming for the past five years and is forecast for annual growth of about 10% by the end of the year. Paul Howard finds out if the industry's love affair with them is set to continue.
Citius, altius, fortius. Faster, higher, stronger. This, of course, is the motto of the Olympic Games, a phrase which will no doubt become familiar to Londoners and visitors alike in the run up to 2012.
But it could also be the motto of the telehandler. With machines becoming evermore manoeuvrable, with lift heights increasing and with weight-lifting capacities seemingly knowing no bounds, these machines have already made great strides in their attempts to become the champion of construction sites.
Indeed, their popularity is now almost unequalled, when judged by the number of machines. Last year, according to Haydn Davies, divisional director of specialist telehandler hirer UKForks, the market for telehandlers in the UK was around 8,000 units. "Roughly two-thirds of these machines - between 5,000 and 5,500 - went into construction. The rest went into agriculture and industry," he says.
Nor is this a sudden surge to the line - the popularity of these machines has been building up over the past five years, some say considerably longer.
But will they still be on track for gold when London is the centre of the sporting world? Or
will they be in need of artificial stimulation?
While predicting the market for a product in seven years' time is an inexact science, the overwhelming opinion of those involved in the telehandler market - whether making them, hiring them out, or using them - is that telehandlers are set to rule the roost for a long time yet.
The more immediate outlook is certainly healthy.
"We expect the UK telescopic handler market to have grown by around 10% by the end of 2005," says Francoise Rausch, JCB's managing director of sales.
Others are even more upbeat. According to Peter Grant, marketing manager for Merlo UK, 2005 is currently set to be an improvement on 2004, which was the company's best so far in terms of order intake and machine deliveries. "The factory is currently expanding with a view to increasing production capability in the order of 25%, which indicates the company's belief in a strong and continuing market worldwide," he adds.

Growth forecast
For Bobcat, Didier Schotte, business unit manager for telehandlers in Europe, is forecasting market growth, based on sales figures to June, of 15% for 2005. However, while many sectors would give their eye teeth for such an increase in sales, this is a noticeable reduction when compared to a 20% surge in 2004.
"It's correct to say it's a growing market - there's still a growing use of telehandlers in construction, recycling, farming and general material handling," he explains: "But the UK market is cyclical, based on deals secured with larger hirers. The big UK companies placed a lot of orders in 2004, but with machines having a life-cycle of around three to four years, sales in 2005 and 2006 can be expected to be a bit lower."
Yet he maintains the market has not reached saturation, and an increase in the rate of growth is likely again in 2007/2008.
One reason for this continued growth is the popularity of the machines in such thriving sectors as housebuilding. "The buoyancy of the private housing market, with the demand for three-storey developments and the continuing need for affordable housing is driving the appeal for the telehandler," says Paul Bidwell, promotions manager at Manitou.
This alone suggests there is no reason to think the desire for these machines is set to wane. "They are here for the future and not just a phase," says Kevin Dyke, project manager at general contractor and housebuilder Wates.
"The telescopic handler dominates the market and all the indicators suggest that this is set to continue," agrees Rausch: "The majority of specifiers are now fully aware of the merits of a telescopic handler and appreciate the contribution that these machines make to an industry that is suffering from a skills shortage with a resultant increase in labour cost. These factors, coupled with a requirement to reduce manual handling and improve completion times, can only serve to increase their popularity."

Maintaining status
Whether this increase in popularity is likely to be at the same, astronomical rates as over the past five years is less clear, explains Davies. Yet their pre-
eminence will not face a serious challenge. "There's no significant threat to the use of telehandlers on site. When it comes to mini tower cranes, for example, you mustn't underestimate the cultural side of the UK market. Everybody knows telehandlers and what they can do and their health and safety implications; it's quite a bold leap to use a crane."
Not that Davies is myopic about the virtues of telehandlers. "Cranes do have their uses, on tighter and taller sites," he says: "But the reality is that most sites aren't so tight or so tall that a 17m telehandler can't operate there."
Even where such cranes can be used, they are uncertain to make many inroads into the telehandler market. "Telehandlers are a lot more versatile - cranes can only lift," points out Schotte.

European markets
In fact, some see the trend as being the other way. "When asking this question, you have to balance it against the fact that European markets - where mini tower cranes are more popular than the UK - are absorbing more and more handlers, not less. We have recent instances of contractors replacing tower cranes with roto machines because of their advanced versatility," says Grant.
Yet there are others who are more ready to accept the limits of the telehandler.
"There is a trend at the moment towards high-rise, inner city apartments. Telehandlers have the ability to serve these kinds of building only to a level, after which cranes or hoists are required," says Paul Davenport, construction manager at Wates.
When it comes to mini tower cranes in particular, Davenport acknowledges the UK's lack of experience compared with our continental cousins, in part due to them not being widely available: "Mini tower cranes on the continent are often used for small developments - single dwellings for example - which are often constructed from in situ concrete. Mini tower cranes are extremely well suited in this situation."
Not that this is necessarily a sign of burgeoning popularity over here. "Construction in this country tends to be different in this regard - fewer small, one-off dwelling developments," he explains: "This said, I believe their use may become more commonplace, notwithstanding their restricted load capacity, but I am sure tradition will mean a slow introduction into our markets."

In the round
Given telehandlers are set to stay the distance, what are the likely developments within the market?
According to Davies, current trends indicate a growing reliance on machines at the higher end of both standard units and rotos - 360o machines. "With roto units capable of extending lift heights even further, this begs the question: how many of the rotos are being bought because they're rotos, and how many because they just give greater lift height? We've already noticed the demand for 15m rotos has reduced following the development of 17m standard machines. It's a difficult question to answer."
Davies also identifies a less pronounced, but noticeable trend towards machines at the smaller end of the market, with lift heights of between 4m and 5m.
"With the higher reach machines, and in particular with rotos, there is a growing tendency to have these 'fixed' on site and to feed them with smaller machines - using rotos to fetch and carry can be laborious. These smaller machines are also becoming more popular as ones which can be used between floors on developments," he says.
"There is an increasing requirement for compact machinery to operate in restricted building sites to handle loads in previously 'out of bounds' areas," Bidwell agrees.
These developments, however, merely extend the range of the basic product rather than tampering with its core virtues. First among these is versatility.

Multipurpose machines
"The main reason for the telehandler's popularity is its versatility - it can perform several different applications," explains Schotte. "As well as pushing and pulling and lifting it can be a tool carrier and can replace both the crane and the rough terrain forklift on site. It's not just for lifting pallets on to the second floor - it can do much more than that."
Davenport agrees: "Telescopic handlers are one of the few multi-role vehicles in popular use, replacing or supplementing other machines (eg dumpers, cranes, access equipment). This is a rarity on UK sites as we tend not to appreciate multi-use machinery, preferring specialist equipment."
But it's not just their versatility that makes them so popular, according to Davies: "Their core appeal is material handling - the ability to get bricks from A to B. Telehandlers are still the most cost-effective way to do this."
And then there's safety. "Telescopic handlers have had a huge impact upon the safe handling of materials on UK sites," says Grant. "Some of this has been forced on users by Health & Safety regulations which limit the manual handling of materials, some simply by the realisation that good handling saves time, effort and materials."
Whatever the reason, London will no doubt be hoping the Olympic Games of 2012 can emulate this success. <25A0>