AFI-Uplift, the second-largest rental company for cherry picker platforms, has opened the site on the Red Scar Business Park on Longridge Road, Ribbleton.

Steve Williams, north west operations manager said the firm already had 55 machines on hire throughout Lancashire and hoped to increase its stock on the site to 250 vehicles by the summer.

He said the company had seen a boom in demand through its Manchester and Liverpool depots in recent months and will offer hire, sales, services and full training from its Lancashire base.

Mr Williams said: "It is the perfect location to serve the M6 and M65 corridors which is an area neither of our existing north west depots can cover.

"We currently only have three people working on site together with a lot of support staff across the region.

"But we are looking to up that number to nearer 12 to 15 people by the end of the year.

"Everything obviously depends on the economic climate and how much demand there is for our products and services, but the early signs are very good."

The depot current has a fleet of 150 boom and scissor lifts with AFI stocking more than 4,300 across its 19 depots throughout the country.

It also has branches in Birmingham, the East Midlands, Hull, London East, London South and London West, Milton Keynes, the North East, Peterborough, Scotland, Southampton, South West, South Wales, and Wakefield.

AFI director Nick Higgins said: "The company is moving forward across all aspects of the business.

"We are increasing our UK depot coverage, expanding our hire fleet and at the same time have increased our customer base by over 50%."

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