Nationwide Access, the UK's largest powered access rental company, has won one of the country's most coveted quality awards. At a ceremony in London earlier this month [26 March], and in the presence of senior executives of many of Britain's premier construction companies, Nationwide was awarded the Quality in Construction award for its PowerClad hydraulically-operated cladding panel placement system.

PowerClad beat submissions from a large number of leading construction equipment companies. Judges were quoted as being impressed with the way in which PowerClad uniquely solves the problems associated with the positioning of both horizontal and vertical cladding panels, the major contribution it has shown to make towards greatly improved site productivity, and PowerClad's ability to all but alleviate the costly damage to expensive cladding panels that had previously plagued the cladding sector. Its record for improving site safety was highlighted as another critical factor in receiving the prestigious award.

PowerClad's Product Manager, Peter Compton, who masterminded the product's design, received the award on behalf of Nationwide. Commenting at the award ceremony he said: "PowerClad has attracted a lot of industry praise since it was launched early last year, and the Quality in Construction award underpins all of the positive feedback we have received from cladding contractors." He continued: "Following its success in the UK, we plan to launch PowerClad in Europe through our sister companies in France, Germany and Spain."

PowerClad is designed for use with selected scissor lifts from all the main manufacturers including Genie, UpRight, Liftlux and Grove. The product is CE marked and fully patented across Europe where it is soon to be launched in Germany and France.

Nationwide Access is part of the publicly-quoted Lavendon Group plc and is headquartered in Lutterworth, Leicestershire. Its hire fleet is twice the size of its nearest UK competitor and all of the company's 50 depots comply with Nationwide's ISO 9002 accreditation. The Group is also the European market leader in powered access, trading under the name Zooom in Germany, France, Spain and Austria.