Ahern Australia launched

Ahern Australia was officially launched at the annual HRIA Convention 2014, which took place at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, Queensland.

It is the new name for the Snorkel Australia direct sales and service entity, which was acquired by Xtreme Manufacturing in October 2013, and will distribute Snorkel products in the region. The existing Snorkel Australia facilities and personnel will all remain under the new name.

“The major advantage of the Ahern Australia name is that it will allow us to easily distribute Xtreme telehandlers through the same channels. This presents a good opportunity in Australia, where there is a strong demand for high capacity telehandlers,” said a company spokesman.

Ahern Australia had a strong presence at the HRIA Convention 2014, named HIRE14, and was organised by the Hire & Rental Industry Association (HRIA).

The three-day event included an exhibition, live equipment demonstrations, conference and an awards dinner.

Products on show included Snorkel’s S1930E electric slab scissor lift; T46JRT telescopic boom lift; Pop-Up Push 10 Pro mini scissor; and the MHP13AT towable boom lift, designed for the Australian and New Zealand markets. The Snorkel SL30SL Speed Level and the S3970RT compact rough terrain scissor lift were being demonstrated outside.

Don Ahern, owner of Snorkel and Xtreme Manufacturing, was a Keynote speaker at the HRIA Conference, along with two other rental professionals. He shared his experience of the US rental industry with the audience.

Matthew Elvin, president of Ahern Australia, said, “HRIA was the perfect launch pad for Ahern Australia. The show is attended by all of our key customers and they were very excited about our future.

“It was particularly good to have Don here for this very important step in our progress in Australia, especially as he had the opportunity to meet so many of our longstanding customers during the three day event.”