Palfinger to establish joint venture with Sky Aces

Palfinger is to establish Palfinger Platforms Italy Srl, a joint venture with Sky Aces headquartered in Bolzano, Italy.

The company, in which Palfinger holds a majority share, will specialise in the development, production and distribution of small truck mounted platforms. The joint venture will specifically focus on high volume lower cost units up to 3.5 tonnes.

The existing operating business of Sky Aces, building the Tunlift and Fanlift tunnel maintenance platforms will be transferred into the new company.

Markets targeted by the new business will include municipalities, energy supply companies, infrastructure providers and rental companies.

Palfinger Platforms Italy will also take over the distribution of all Palfinger access products in Italy, while the new Italian built products will be distributed outside of Italy through the Palfinger distribution network. Initially the Italian built machines will only be sold in Europe, however the company plans to extend that worldwide at a later date.

Palfinger chief executive Herbert Ortner said: “We are pursuing two objectives with this joint venture. First, we want to open up the large and strongly growing market segment of access platforms for use on smaller trucks in the field of infrastructure preservation and maintenance. Secondly, through Palfinger Platforms Italy, we are planning to intensively develop the Italian market, which is of importance to us.”