Editor’s Comment
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Storage Handling Distribution – promoting excellence in intralogistics
Editor
Peter.MacLeod@
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Contributing Editor – Property David Thame
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Peter
MacLeod Editor
COMMENT
His colourful presence will be greatly missed by the industry to which he has devoted his professional life since leaving the Fifth Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, a cavalry regiment of the British Army, in 1957. Together with his brother Trevor, Sir Neville started by importing Dutch fork lift trucks, but they designed their own model after deciding they could do a better job. Thus was born Lancer Boss, which grew in under his watch in both size and reputation from its Leighton Buzzard HQ. Always one to spot an opportunity, and acutely aware of the threat from – and relative strengths and weaknesses of – overseas competition, Sir Neville bought the Steinbock business, and with further acquisitions and a legendary instinct for innovation he established his company among the world’s top-10 manufacturers by the early 1990s.
By the middle of that decade, however, the Steinbock connection had brought Lancer Boss down; as bidders jostled to buy out the business, Steinbock’s bankers withdrew facilities, forcing it into receivership. The whole business was snapped up by Jungheinrich.
The industry hadn’t, however, seen the back of Sir Neville. Impressed by a visit in 1996 to the Hangzhou Lift Truck Company (HC) in China, which at the time was manufacturing forklifts for Nissan, he set up Samuk to bring HC trucks to Europe. The factory turned to producing its own models when Nissan formed a strategic partnership with Renault and cancelled its contract with HC. It is now the largest manufacturer in China. My first meeting with Sir Neville took place in the grounds of his magnificent house, Toddington Manor in Bedfordshire. How could one not be charmed by the magnificent man and his lifting machines in such a setting? His stories from over the years are legendary, and my only regret is that I cannot print hardly any of them!
©2012 Informa Exhibitions Ltd. All Rights reserved. ISSN: 0039-1832
SHD is editorially independent, and does not levy a charge for ‘colour separations’. The views expressed in this publication are not nessessarily those of the editor or publisher
It remains for me to wish Sir Neville all the best for his retirement. A keen collector of vintage tractors and lover of fine cars, I’m sure he won’t be allowing retirement to get in the way of his busy life just yet.
The imminent retirement of Sir Neville Bowman-Shaw brings to a close a chapter in British forklift manufacturing the likes of which we are unlikely to see again. The hard-working veteran of 60+ years in our industry has announced he will cede control of Samuk this autumn at the grand age of 82.
www.shdlogistics.com
Storage Handling Distribution July 2012 5
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