Tanfield Group Wiki    

edit Executive Summary

Tanfield (LON:TAN) is a AIM listed group of specialised engineering businessesbased in Tyne & Wear. It is involved in manufacturing electric and diesel powered access equipment (it produces two brands of aerial lifts, UpRight and Snorkel, ranging from 4m to 40m). It also produces commercial electric vehicles (vans and trucks) under the Smith Electric Vehicles brand. Its shares, previously trading high on the 'green' story, fell back dramatically after the company released a poor trading statement.

edit Company History

Tanfield was founded by Roy Stanley, an entrepreneur, initially as a sub-contracting engineering business. In 2000, it spun off Comeleon, which manufactured mobile phone covers, but collapsed following the dot-com bust. Stanley used the Comeleon shell to take over Tanfield, and bought Aerial Access, UpRight, and Smith Electric Vehicles ^[1] .

edit Current Events

Tanfield has just won federal funding of USD 10m for its US joint venture, Smith Electric Vehicles US Corporation, and is working with Ford on producing Ford Transit Connect BEV vans for the North American market ^[2] .

edit Business Model

Tanfield has two major divisions, together with a legacy engineering parts business which accounts for a small percentage of income.

powered access

This business manufactures powered access platforms which sell mainly to the construction industry. Many customers are equipment rental companies, rather than end users. It was created by the acquisition of Aerial Access and UpRight, and later of Snorkel, an American aerial access business.