Gloom of rival casts shadow on Tanfield

Jun 28 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

SHARES in struggling North East company Tanfield fell 43% yesterday after a pessimistic trading update from one of its main competitors

US company Oshkosh Corp, owner of JLG, which makes aerial work platforms and has more than 40% of the global market, cut its sales forecast.

This prompted a run on shares at Washington company Tanfield, which is headed by the chairman of Business Link North East Roy Stanley.

The fall prompted Tanfield to release a statement to the stock market saying its own trading statement would be posted on Tuesday.

This marks the end of a difficult week for the company, which makes Smith electric vehicles as well as its own range of cherry pickers.

It has put staff at its plant in Tanfield Lea, County Durham, on redundancy notice as it conducts a 30-day consultation.

The group is expected to axe about 30 jobs at the sub-contracting engineering factory on the site where Tanfield started life before developing its Washington headquarters.

On Sunday it was reported Tanfield was lining up a new heavyweight non-executive director and a “tier one” broker to repair relations with the City.

The company is expected to respond to increasing pressure from leading shareholders, who are unhappy the share price has fallen by 65% in a year.

The AIM-listed company has faced recent criticism from the City amid claims of lack of disclosure and poor investor relations. Shares fell to 29p.