Forklift News - USED MATERIALS HANDLING EQUIPMENT: PART TWO

With an annual machinery turnover of 4,000 to 5,000 forklifts, TVH has a convincing argument for the tag "world's biggest used forklift wholesaler".
While the company is known as a leading supplier of forklift spare parts, and derives about 75% of its income from parts sales, TVH was established as a used forklift dealer in 1970.
Forkliftaction.com News chief reporter Damien Tomlinson spoke with Pascal Vanhalst, TVH forklift division general manager.
Mr Vanhalst's daily routine involves office-bound duties such as coordinating his division's 30-odd staff, but the majority of his time is spent travelling the globe, wheeling and dealing to keep the yard full of forklifts.
He says Europe is TVH's core sales market, and a big supplier for used machines, given that trucks bought new in Europe need less compliance work for resale into the wholesale market. The USA and Asia are also sources for used forklifts coming off fleet contracts or through auctions.
It is no surprise then, with Europe being TVH's biggest market, that diesel Linde forklifts "born" in Europe are big selling items.
"Linde and Toyota are the two most well-known forklift makers in the world, so there are lots of used machines in the wholesale market," Mr Vanhalst said.
"Their popularity and reputation in the new retail market means we sell a lot of Lindes and Toyotas to used [forklift] buyers."
The most common forklifts requested by customers are counterbalance, combustion forklifts up to three tonnes in capacity, and TVH keeps a stock of about 1,500 forklifts at its yard.
But buying trends in recent years were seeing a lot more paperwork than was previously required, Mr Vanhalst said.
"Before, we had many large clients buying lots of forklifts at a time, but recently we are seeing lots of smaller buyers buying only one or two trucks," he said.
"This has created a lot more administration in managing the sales [and] logging forklift information and customer details, but sales figures are increasing."
As Continental Lift Truck founder Douglas Tamasi indicated when discussing the US market this month (Forkliftaction.com News #147), as the quality and range of specific forklifts grows in the market, used customers are now demanding more specialised and unique machines.
TVH is predominantly a wholesale forklift dealer, but provides retail sales to Belgian end users. The added administration, warranties and back-up service required in retail sales meant it was financially not an option to move into retail anywhere other than in TVH's own back yard.
The company offers no warranties, per se, to wholesale customers, but fixes problems with trucks if a customer is not happy after delivery.
Mr Vanhalst said there was no way to quantify the world market for used forklifts, as there was no international body collating industry statistics , but he agreed with Mr Tamasi's claim that two used forklifts were sold for every new machine.
While business had been steady in recent years, 2003 was "average", he said.
"It's hard to predict when you'll have a good year in this industry, as normal economic indicators do not apply. The good thing about that is that we don't experience the fluctuations other industries do."
Another big European used forklift wholesaler, and certainly a major competitor for TVH, is Lisman Vorkheftrucks BV, based in the Netherlands. This family company sells a lot of rough-terrain and large forklifts in addition to warehouse forklifts. Unfortunately a representative of the company was unavailable for interview before deadline.

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