Twenty years access success for Brodrene Jorgensen

Brodrene Jorgensen AS is celebrating 20 years in the access industry growing from a small company based in Bergen repairing access platforms for regional rental companies to an important dealer for Niftylift and Skyjack in Norway.

The company has moved three times over the years to accommodate its growth and this year saw the opening of a branch in Oslo to cover the eastern part of Norway and the launch of a new website.

Tommy Jorgensen founder, director and owner of the company said that the company had grown steadily and securely, "We are proud that we have never been in financial trouble at any time during these 20 years and we try to do everything in a safe manner both for ourselves and our suppliers."

Mr Jorgenen said that the demand for powered access equipment has grown consistently over the last 20 years "In the early days the demand in Scandinavia was mainly from small regional rental companies and end users who were using access platforms to increase employee efficiency. In the last 10 years we have seen the demand being driven by health and safety concerns.

"There has been consolidation of the rental companies and the market is dominated by large multi national and international rental companies. The volume of machines in the market has exploded, competition has increased, machines are readily available and rental rates have dropped in the whole Scandinavian market.

"Health and safety and competitive affordable rates have made powered access the preferred choice for working at height in most applications."

Brodrene Jorgensen become the dealer for Niftylift in 1992 and for Skyjack in 1998, Mr Jorgensen said, "Brodrene Jorgensen AS has had a close working relationship with Niftylift for more than 15 years. I have watched their development and I think their product range growth sums up what has happened to the access industry.

"Originally my main purchases were the basic manual stabiliser trailer products which were sold to end users and small local renters, the demand then was for hydraulic stabilisers, then small self propelled and so on until now where we are selling 21m sophisticated self propelled machines to large international companies.

"We have also had a long and good relationship with Skyjack on scissor lifts," he continued, "It started with RT [rough terrain] machines that we supplied to the building industry and later we also started to supply indoor machines from Skyjack. Now we see that also here we made the right choice regarding quality since the machines are still out there working as new."

Currently Brodrene Jorgensen's customers are looking for products that give them a good return on their investment and are simple and easy to run, "Everything is looked at these days, transport costs, fuel usage, service costs, utilisation, lifetime parts costs, environmental impact, noise etc .," said Mr Jorgensen, "and because the user is more knowledgeable not any ordinary product will do."

As to the future Mr Jorgensen is pragmatic but positive, " I think the coming year is going to be tough for everybody in all walks of life. I think the access industry here is still only in its infancy and is probably in a better position than most. Health and safety legislation will not go backwards, people will always want to work safely and will be looking for the efficiencies which access platforms give.

"I think the main problem will be finance and affordability, but generally I am confident that with my customer base and chosen suppliers I am very lucky and look forward to another 20 years with two of the best suppliers in the industry."-