Interview: the Lolex way

For Lolex managing director and IPAF vice president Julie Houston Smyth, the powered access industry has been a lifelong journey – from growing up around her family’s rental business in Northern Ireland to building an independent distribution and service company. Now, with Lolex established in a new purpose-built facility in Antrim, she is looking to the next stage of the business.

Julie Houston Smyth.

Yet, her route into the access industry was not planned. Her father started the family rental business Highway Plant in 1983 after being made redundant. She grew up around the equipment and operated her first platform at the age of nine – a Simon D40 – but she had no intention of joining the family business.

“I was always around the equipment, but I was never going to go into this industry at all,” she says.

That changed when, following the completion of her degree, a sales representative left the company, and she offered to take on the role.

“At the time, I didn’t know anything about the equipment. On top of that, I was female and it was the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, so I couldn’t have been in a more difficult set of circumstances.”

Running a rental fleet during the Troubles involved considerations that went well beyond normal operational issues. “You really had to think about what you were doing and be aware of where your equipment was going.”

For example, equipment going to sites associated with the security forces had its company identification removed. “You would have to strip the decals off – you would never have a name on the equipment or a truck or anything like that.”

“And there were times when things were really kicking off, that we just didn’t send the trucks out because vehicles were being hijacked.”

Protection money was another reality on some construction sites, while cross-border business brought its own complications. “So, it was very difficult back then, and it was also very difficult to do cross-border work, whereas these days it’s a lot easier – no one thinks anything of it now.”

Although the Good Friday Agreement, which was signed in April 1998, changed the wider environment, Houston Smyth says it took considerably longer for the impact to filter down. “I would honestly say, it took a good 15 years before you really started to see the change.”

Safety and IPAF

Houston Smyth became a director of the family company in 2001 and subsequently helped the business navigate the financial crash of 2008.

During the same period, an accident caused by a manufacturing fault on a scissor lift prompted a renewed focus on safety and standards. “That really made us think about things, we were already an IPAF Training Centre, and in 2010 we became the first IPAF Rental+ company on the island of Ireland - we then subsequently became the first IPAF-CAP certified training centre for engineers – and the only one in Ireland until 2019”

For Houston Smyth, safety became more than a business responsibility. She wanted to influence the industry itself. “I felt I wanted to use my voice, which is why I wanted to join be personally involved in IPAF.”

Her involvement with IPAF eventually saw her become chair of the IPAF Irish Country Council, which had just re-formed to cover the whole of the Island of Ireland. Having served on IPAF’s International Council until 2019, she was then invited to join the Board and is now vice president of the Federation.

Her philosophy in Chairing the Irish Council for the whole of Ireland was that safety tops competition. “My view was that we all needed to set aside our competitiveness and our differences because it was all about keeping people safe across the industry as a whole.”

A new beginning

Highway Plant was sold in 2019, after which Houston Smyth and her husband Trevor, who had also been fleet manager at her father’s company, established Lolex.

Initially, the plan was to develop an independent service and consultancy business. “We really started from nothing with a second-hand van. We wondered what we were going to do and thought we would build an independent service business and offer consultancy and see what came along.”

The new Lolex HQ in Antrim, Nothern Ireland.

The company’s direction changed when Houston Smyth was approached by Sinoboom to distribute its equipment.

Her initial reaction was one of caution, as Chinese MEWPs were still in their infancy and had not yet established themselves in Europe. But a visit to the Wienold Lifte Depot in Germany changed her mind.

“I thought, I really need to do this because this equipment is brilliant – I knew because I had been in the industry, I’d been around this type of equipment for so long.”

Lolex subsequently became involved in establishing Sinoboom in the UK and Ireland, initially through consultancy and then distribution.

The challenge was convincing customers who had never previously considered Chinese equipment. “It was hard to break people’s perception of Chinese equipment. But the advantage I had was that I had run a rental company, so I knew what people looked for. I certainly knew what I would have wanted and therefore I made sure that was what I was going to give them.”

“I would always put a machine in front of people. And then I would go around the machine and point out all the things I had noticed on the first day I had seen it.”

“You could actually watch them go, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s right.’”

To begin with, providing parts was a challenge, although Lolex held a small stock at its premises. Then, when Sinoboom signed its agreement with European parts giant TVH, it had a complete parts framework in place.

One of Lolex’s earliest major orders came from Balloo Hire, which placed an order for 50 machines despite not previously having seen Sinoboom equipment. “They took the chance on me,” says Houston Smyth, “and I took the responsibility of getting that right.”

The machines performed, and Balloo subsequently went on to order many more.

“People are more open-minded now – the shift has happened,” comments Houston Smyth, “But I think we were real disrupters – we were out there from the start when no one else was doing it. And it was not easy.”

The Lolex team.

From those beginnings, , as the sole distributor for Sinoboom across the Island of Ireland, has now sold thousands of machines into the market, while also expanding its portfolio to represent Dinolift, Palazzani and Navigator.

The selection process is deliberate. “We’re looking for products that are good quality and nice people to work with.”

While establishing a new brand is one thing, the complications around imports and, specifically, tariffs are another. The imposition of tariffs last year on MEWPs produced in China entering the EU, followed by this summer’s introduction of similar duties on Chinese equipment imported to the UK, has caused considerable issues.

“It has just made things extremely complicated and it’s no benefit to the industry.”

Expanding on the challenges, Houston Smyth says, “It goes all the way along the line to rental companies, which are faced with higher costs these days across the board from employees, supplier costs, rental costs, fuel. Everything has gone up but rental rates have not – if anything, they have gone down.”

“In the end, it the imposition of these tariffs has raised the costs for rental companies to replenish their fleet.”

Houston Smyth adds, “Where does that tariff money go to – does it go back into the industry to benefit it? No, it goes into the pockets of our bureaucrats.”

The complications are wider for a company like Lolex, which supplies equipment cross-border from both the UK and Europe to Ireland, both of which have different tariff-related regulations and rates. “Throw in exchange rates and different currencies, and it’s a mess.”

A new home in Antrim

Lolex recently moved from its original premises – a farm building – into a new purpose-built facility in Antrim.

The company had started with a tiny office in the corner of the building and gradually outgrew the site but space for machines, offices and demonstrations became increasingly problematic.

Lolex's has recently become distributor for Navigator equipment.

One particularly difficult day finally convinced Houston Smyth and Trevor that the time had come to move. But finding suitable premises was not straightforward.

“The bottom line is that premises for our type of industry are difficult to find because we need sensible secure outside space.”

The new Antrim facility provides the modern indoor facilities and yard space Lolex needs, while also offering a strategically useful location close to Belfast International Airport. “We were very lucky when we found this.”

Looking ahead

Lolex is already considering its next stage of geographical expansion, including the possibility of a second premises, possibly around a year away.

The product portfolio is also expanding, with larger boom lifts joining the scissor lift offering and further specialist products coming through its manufacturing partners.

For Lolex, the next phase is therefore about building on the experience accumulated over decades: a new facility, a growing portfolio of manufacturers and a business model centred on product knowledge, technical support and close customer relationships.

Above all Lolex has also grown into its own family-business with two of Julie and Trevor’s sons Evan and Alexander now working for the company and helping to develop its future.

From a small operation in a farm building to its new home in Antrim, the company has come a long way in a relatively short period.

For Houston Smyth, however, the underlying principle remains the same. “Understand the equipment, understand the customer and make sure the support is there when it matters.”