Nifty celebrates 21 years in Australia

The HRIA Magazine talks to Nifty Australia’s John King about the past 21 years of their success Down Under and we learn how it all began; where the challenges lay; plus a little bit of trivia on the side.

Q: How and when did Nifty launch in Australia?

A: How we came to be in Australia is a bit of a long story. Officially we hit the market for the first time at the 2001 HRIA Convention at Darling Harbour in Sydney. But the back story is the real story.

I had been working as a tour guide in South America and South Africa after serving in the British Army when I met an Aussie girl and we decided to give the relationship a go. So I headed home to the UK to get my visas and applications ready for the relocation to Australia.

While in London I caught up with an old mate, Tim, from my army days, who at that time was working for Niftylift in the UK. They had been keen to set up an Aussie branch and saw my relocation as an opportunity too good to pass up.

So I started working for Niftylift and spent the next seven to nine months waiting for all my paperwork to be approved and learning as much as possible about the company and equipment.

Nifty is such a great product and has a solidly defined market and I was sold on moving to Australia. It was a done deal.

I arrived in Australia on the opening day of the Olympics in September 2000 and then got busy setting everything up.

Q: What’s been challenging about the journey so far?

A: One of the hardest things about setting up was the fact we didn’t know anyone in Australia: not relatives; not businesses; not industry connections; not even

This year marks 21 years of heavy lifting for Nifty

competitors. We really had to start from scratch and learn the ropes on our own. It was really a trial by error approach and pure hard slog – and lots and lots of miles.

Our first three machines arrived by container in the first quarter in 2001 and we took those straight to the HRIA Convention at Darling Harbour. Those machines were the tried and true Nifty 120T, the HR12 Narrow; and the 170 Self Drive. (While all three are still in the range today, we sell limited numbers of the 170SD and the HR12 Narrow has now been superceded by a newer model.)

After the convention, I just hooked up a trailer mount and drove around the country knocking on doors, showing the machine and showcasing our capabilities.

Following the Olympics there was a glut of EWPs and it took time to establish a market. It was a difficult first couple of years.

The first sales were hard to get. We were competing with established companies here; going up against competitors as the new player on the block.

But then, we got a start in Queensland, establishing a relationship with Queensland Access. And the first Nifty machines in Australia were sold to Hamblin Hire in Albury and Always Hire in Coffs Harbour.

After the first few sales, the market saw the value of our product and more doors started to slowly open.

The big one was when Kennards Hire came on board after about five or six long years of hard work and lots and lot of driving.

This came about because Kennards had inherited some Nifty’s from companies they had bought, and they liked our machines. So they continued to buy Nifty products.

That was a big moment for us.

About six or seven years into the journey of establishing Nifty in Australia, we found some land in Newcastle and built a workshop which seemed like it would do us for years to come. (Two years later we needed to double the size of the workshop and premises to accommodate our growth.)

At that time, we started taking on staff members to help with the number of sales and deliveries and in about 2006-2007 we exchanged our initially developed state-based sales agents for our own sales force. This enabled us to better manage and personalise our service and tailor our options to our customer’s needs. Nowadays we still have one great service agent in South Australia in Ben Pritchard at BPF Equipment.

Q: What have been some of Nifty’s big successes in the past 21 years?

A: Our first sales were a true achievement, as were developing relationships within the industry and building our network and friendships. These are all the big milestones for us.

We came into the Australian market an unproven and untried competitor.

But we persevered and our trailer mount has been a big success. It’s a great product and Australians know a good product when they see one.

And then we brought in our booms and then our first hybrid machines and we won the HRIA Best Product of the Year Award about 11 years ago for our secondary guarding – SiOPS – the first of its kind on the market.

Then we won the HRIA Best New Product again a couple of years later for our HR17 Hybrid Power Plant. That was truly gratifying.

I consider our continued growth over the past 21 years a true success and it has been amazing to see how the industry has changed and grown during that time.

Q: If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself at the outset of the Nifty Australia journey?

Adding the boom to its range was a Nifty milestone

A: Don’t do it! Hahaha. No seriously, it would be to tell myself: don’t sweat the small stuff; you know, all those niggly little issues that keep you up at night but in the end really aren’t that important. Ultimately there is always a bigger picture and that is where it is best to focus.

Q: What is a frustrating aspect about selling machines in Australia?

A: The biggest issue in Australia is truly the tyranny of distance. In the UK, no destination is more than threequarters of a day’s drive away. Here, it can be up to four days of driving to get from one side of the country to the other. Australia is huge and covering the distances has been a really big challenge.

However it didn’t take long to wise up to the challenge and we developed partnerships with service companies like Access Services Australia to provide our service support and backup.

Q: Where do you hope the company will be at its 30th anniversary?

A: Well, apart from personally hoping I’ll be on an island somewhere with a bottle of tequila, I hope Nifty will carry on bringing innovative product to market.

We are seen as a go-to company for unique products and I know there is a lot more still to come.

Q: What’s some Nifty trivia no one knows?

A: Well, that’s a tough one. I am pretty much an open book and I think many people have heard all my stories.

Q: How does the Nifty UK head office view the Australian market?

A: Totally impressed with the growth out here! The UK office think Australia is a great and growing market and recognises our loyal customer base.

You know, working with Aussies and bringing Niftys to the market has been an amazing journey and an inspiring one. I have thoroughly enjoyed the first 21 years and want to thank all our customers and industry members and those who have offered guidance and help along the way.

We have gone from strength to strength and that is in large part due to the support shown us from the Aussie market. It’s also due to our excellent product.

We are now selling second generation hybrid machines which are even cleaner, more efficient and more intelligent. I know hybrid and electric equipment is the way forward, especially in view of the emissions targets being set by governments worldwide.

I truly believe pure diesel engines are thing of the past. We have to be on the right side of history and Nifty is facing the future with clear aims and ambitions to keep improving our equipment and work towards a cleaner and more efficient equipment future.