Company Announcement - Skyjacks Tailifts and Ratcliff Tailifts have announced that they have entered into a joint venture as at 1 March 2015 that will effectively combine 60 years of tailift knowledge, R&D and manufacture, benefitting the clients of both operations with access to top quality lifts that are robust and cost effective in the African environment.

The companies will soon move to a single manufacturing facility at SkyPark, in Anderbolt Extension, Boksburg, that has been purpose-built for the manufacture, servicing and fitment of tailifts.

“Given the risks inherent in the uncertainty surrounding the supply of electricity and potential industrial action that saw our steel supply disrupted in 2014, the companies’ directors believe that this joint venture will ensure the survival and growth of the South African manufactured tailift,” says Warwick van Breda, managing director for Skyjacks Tailifts.

“Our combined existing customer bases, as well as potential new customers, will benefit significantly from the pooled customer support that will provide both on- and off-site support for all brands of tailift. We will also leverage off our combined dealer networks in southern Africa to enable us to move ahead with a strategy to sell and service our locally produced products internationally.”

van Breda adds that the JV will improve relations with the companies’ various suppliers by ensuring the consistency of large volume orders for supply to both organisations. This will enable both companies to plan manufacture and importation of speciality parts in a more systematic way that will greatly improve service levels.

We will proudly maintain ourselves as a South African manufacturer while the sales representatives of both entities will continue to call on and sell each company’s products as before, concludes van Breda.