CELA and Socage acquired by Italian start-up company

Two senior figures from Italy's aerial platform and rental sector have teamed up to buy Italian aerial platform manufacturers CELA and Socage.

Mr Paolo Troni, a former shareholder of rental company RentUp, and Mr Fiorenzo Flisi, previously a shareholder at Oil & Steel, are the two major shareholders of a new business that has been established to acquire and integrate aerial platform manufacturers.

The business started by acquiring Brescia-based CELA earlier this summer and has now followed that with the acquisition of Socago, the aerial platform division of the Fassi Group, based near Modena.

The two manufacturers have some overlap in product lines. Socage is best known for its truck mounted platforms up to 75 m working height and it also makes a range of crawler mounted ‘Spider' units with heights up to 22 m. CELA also makes truck mounts and Spiders, although it's strengths are its crawler units up to 38 m height and the Ikarus branded firefighting platforms.

The new owners have yet to make any public announcement about the acquisitions. This story will be updated.