Bruce Pelynio at Heli Americas' ProMat 2007 booth.

Heli's forklift distribution in eastern and central regions of the United States is getting a fresh start under new ownership.

Consequently, the significance of pending Heli-related litigation is now moot.

Newly formed Dobbs Imports LLC, of Memphis, Tennessee, USA, acquired the Heli distribution business in 31 states from MH Imports Inc, of Dallas, Texas, USA, on January 7.

Forklift industry veteran Bruce Pelynio was named president and CEO of Dobbs Imports under an equity partnership arrangement with diversified investment company Dobbs Management Service LLC (DMS), of Memphis. Dobbs Imports is trading as Heli Americas.

In mid-2006, diversified conglomerate Sammons Enterprises Inc, of Dallas, had hired Pelynio as president of its new MH Imports subsidiary with an intention to develop the Heli business, but legal issues quickly arose.

Nacco Materials Handling Group Inc and its Yale Materials Handling Corp unit, in Greenville, North Carolina, sued Sammons on June 21 in a federal court in North Carolina. They claimed the MH-Heli relationship would violate existing business agreements between Yale and another Sammons forklift-marketing business unit, Briggs Industrial Equipment Inc (Forkliftaction.com News #273)

DMS's involvement and the change of ownership bring the Heli business under an entity without forklift-industry conflicts.

"With the purchase of MH by myself and Dobbs, the litigation is null and void," Pelynio told Forkliftaction.com News. The legal conflict had put Pelynio's earlier MH efforts on hold.

Pelynio's team is now recruiting dealers to market the electric and internal combustion powered forklifts that Anhui Heli Co Ltd, of Hefei, China, manufactures.

'We have not signed any dealers yet," Pelynio said on January 22. "We have a list of 35 applicants."

Pelynio said Dobbs Imports had a variety of Heli forklifts in US warehouse storage and was positioned to make the units available through new dealership connections. Heli forklifts have lifting capacities of 2,000lbs-22,000lbs (900kg-9,900kg).

Dobbs Imports has hired three marketing managers, each with forklift industry experience. Mike Kennedy joined as Northeast regional manager, based near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Mike Mills, in Charlotte, North Carolina, is Southeast regional manager. Tom DeRidder, in Chicago, Illinois, is the North Central regional manager.

Pelynio's organisation and two other North American Heli distributors collaborated in exhibiting at the January 8-11 ProMat trade show in Chicago.

Southwest Equipment Sales (SWES), of Denver, Colorado, represents Heli in 19 US states, and a division of Canadian Forklift Distributors Ltd, of Thorold, Canada, covers all Canadian provinces.

Dobbs Imports and SWES plan to have Heli equipment in a booth at the American Rental Association's February 7-10 Rental Show in Atlanta, Georgia.

In addition to Dobbs Imports, other current investments of private equity firm DMS include beer distributorships and health-plan administration. The lineage for the family-run business goes back to 1920 and has included ownership of automobile dealerships, restaurants and airline catering services.