AERIAL lift manufacturer UpRight Powered Access has appointed Independent Parts and Service (IPS) as its master distributor for the UK.

The appointment is part of an aggressive strategy to increase domestic market share by UpRight. Under the agreement, IPS will become the exclusive UK distributor of UpRight machines for dealers and end users. It will also provide all product support and spare parts.

UpRight Powered Access will however retain direct control of all major national accounts. Darren Kell, UpRight’s director, said: “We see this as a perfect partnership. “UpRight is now the UK’s leading powered access manufacturer and IPS is the UK’s leading independent supplier of spare parts and product support.”

IPS was established in 2001 and rapidly grew into a global business. Today it employs more than 50 staff in the UK.The company recently moved into a 20,000sq ft facility in Telford, Shropshire, while opening offices in Australia and France. Tony Jennings, managing director for IPS, said: “This partnership represents a fantastic business opportunity for both parties. “IPS has worked hard to develop superb relationships across the board in the UK aerial work platform industry. “We know our clients want high quality machines and UpRight range provides this. “We feel that UpRight Powered Access is a strong brand that is really going places and we can work well with its management team.”

The IPS team have racked up more than 50 years’ experience selling and supporting UpRight machines and have extensive product knowledge.“The whole IPS team are extremely proud to be re-associated with the UpRight brand,” said Mr Jennings. “We have always believed UpRight has a great product portfolio and know that we have the capability to greatly increase UK sales.”

Darren Kell said: “IPS already has a fantastic sales infrastructure and a proven track record of peerless customer service on spare parts and maintenance.“Having IPS as our exclusive distributor will instantly open up a huge market for UpRight Powered Access machines.“IPS is the best in the business when it comes to looking after machines in the field and being able to provide our end users with that level of confidence is priceless.”

UpRight recently appointed Power-Lift as master distributor for Germany. The company, which became UpRight Powered Access in June 2006, is transferring production from Ireland to North East England. It is investing several million pounds in a new 250,000sq ft (23,000sq m) assembly facility. Mr Kell said: “We are building a world class business and that requires finding strong partners in territories where UpRight has underperformed in recent years. “We are delighted to have signed up IPS and are confident that between us we can significantly increase our market share in the UK.”