Company targets a big lift in sales to Germany

Acorn Stairlifts, based in Steeton, West Yorkshire, has devised a new way of installing the mobility systems which one of its executives likened to using a Meccano set. It means stairlifts can be set up within just a few hours of receiving an order, avoiding the four-week wait which has been traditional for parts of the industry.

The group, which has 480 staff, took turnover to 80m last year, up from the 65m in 2009, on the back of a strong performance in America.

Now it wants to recruit more staff in Germany, where it has had a presence for three years, as it rolls out its Fast Track system, which it began offering on a trial basis in June.

Dave Belmont, company secretary, said Acorn will close its warehouse in Willich, near Dsseldorf in western Germany, and increase its number of installer vans as it seeks to win business around the country.

Staff will be based in Dsseldorf as well as Hamburg and Leipzig, with vans based at or near their homes.

Mr Belmont said: "Germany has been an excellent base to expand into the rest of Europe. We will grow in the US and Europe, especially on the back of Fast Track.

"Instead of producing a single curved rail in the factory as our competitors do, Acorn builds such a rail from a number of straight, curved and angled pieces, similar to constructing a Meccano set."

Acorn currently has fleets of Fast Track vans in Britain, France, Italy and Switzerland. Its European business, excluding Britain, contributes about 11m to turnover. Yesterday, it launched its new vans for Germany, which have lightweight honeycomb bulkhead and shelving, and no sliding side door, meaning they are lighter and can store more stairlifts without being replenished.

Kris Hopkins, the Conservative MP for Keighley, attended the launch and praised Acorn for investing in order to grow.

The group, which also includes associated companies in stairlift manufacturing and sales, said it is the largest private sector employer in Mr Hopkins' constituency. It plans to take its Fast Track service to Spain, Ireland, Cananda and Australia this year.

Acorn is seeing a demand for so-called bespoke stairlifts in its foreign markets because of the higher proportion of staircases with bends in them, which makes installation a more complex procedure.

It builds the products in Steeton and Shipley, as well as in Edinburgh, before shipping them abroad. It sells direct to market as well as to suppliers and has a sales and distribution centre in Orlando, Florida.

Acorn has grown steadily in America as it spent more on advertising and increased its resources there. Although the firm has benefitted from the positive attitude to British businesses, Mr Belmont said it has faced some challenges, with the market for stairlifts not as well established as in Britain while the sheer size of the country means it can take more time to do business.

"The problem is the physical size of the territory. In the UK we could install five lifts a day but over there you travel a lot more."

About two-thirds of the people using Acorn's equipment are over the age of 75 – the buyers are often family members – with the rest purchased for young people with disabilities.

The ageing population in Britain – almost a quarter of the population will be aged over 65 by 2030, rising to over 40 per cent in some areas of the country – and America, means there is a huge potential market for the Yorkshire

business.

Acorn was set up in 1992 by John Jakes, who remains the owner. It began selling second-hand stairlifts but began making its own because demand was such that Mr Jakes could not source them sufficiently quickly.

Today, the bulk of the business involves new products, although it still sells some re-conditioned models, and it exports to 90 countries, including Russia and Japan, Mr Belmont said.

The shape of things to come

Acorn Stairlifts believes it is the only firm in the world that has a modular or kit system for building non-standard stairlift rails.

This means that instead of a single curved rail being built in a factory, it is made from a number of straight, curved and angled pieces, which is why it has been compared to using Meccano.

The firm still needs to use a technical surveyor, with a computer aided design (CAD) team to design the rail for each house. The pieces are then sent out to be installed.

Dave Belmont, company secretary, said Acorn received an order for a stairlift on a curved staircase on December 22 and was able to install it by Christmas Eve.