Nissan Forklift buys OEM partner
GOTHENBURG

Nissan Motor Co Ltd is buying Atlet AB after its European subsidiary finalised an agreement with the Swedish warehousing forklift specialist yesterday.

Both companies praised each other as suitable partners for expansion in the forklift industry.

Nissan Motor's corporate vice president, Toshio Aoki, is confident Atlet will boost Nissan's position in the global forklift industry through its warehouse forklifts that complement Nissan's mainly counterbalanced range.

“Atlet is the ideal partner for us to reinforce our position as a major player in the global material handling market, thanks to their high quality products which complement our existing product line-up.”

Nissan's main forklift products are its engine and electric counterbalanced forklifts.

The Japanese manufacturer has had an OEM agreement since 2002 for Atlet to manufacture Nissan Forklift warehouse forklifts for selected European markets.

Atlet AB CEO Marianne Brismar says Atlet will benefit from Nissan's forklift markets.
“Not only will we have the opportunity to strengthen our product range under our existing brand name, but we will also be able to expand into new markets.”

Nissan's key markets are US, Europe and Japan while Atlet has a strong European presence.

Atlet founder Knut Jacobsson says the acquisition opens the possibility of an “exciting and rewarding” future for its nearly 1,000 employees.

“With no natural family succession, we wanted to find an industrial partner to allow us long-term development and to strengthen the Atlet brand,” he says.

Atlet was established 49 years ago by Jacobsson and has been owned by the family until now.

The combined companies will produce over 36,500 units a year globally and have an annual turnover of EUR858 million (USD1.165 billion). Both brands and sales networks will operate separately.

They will exchange technology and manufacturing know-how, and cost savings are expected to result from joint purchasing activities.

The acquisition is pending approval by the EU Commission and is expected to be completed by the end of 2007.

Brismar will be replaced by a new CEO when the acquisition finalises. She will remain at Atlet as a special advisor.

Atlet, headquartered in Mölnlycke, Sweden, started producing warehouse materials handling equipment in 1958. Its annual sales is EUR182 million (USD247.2 million) and production output is 6,500 units.

Nissan Forklift Europe BV is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nissan Motor Co Ltd, and is part of Nissan Motor's industrial machinery division. The division is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. With production facilities in Japan, US and Spain, Nissan started forklift production in 1957. Its annual sales is about EUR676 million (USD918.1 million). It employs about 1,400 people and produces 30,000 units annually.

Kion eyeing US opportunities
WIESBADEN, Germany

Germany’s Kion Group is on the look-out for a US acquisition to grow its market share and complement its OM brand, CEO Hubertus Krossa told reporters in Frankfurt last week.

The Wiesbaden-based group is, however, reluctant to specify which US companies constitute attractive acquisition targets.

“If an opportunity arises, we will certainly seize it,” Krossa said.

Acquisitions could narrow the gap between Kion and world number one, Toyota Industries Corp.

Kion, acquired through a leverage buyout by KKR and Goldman Sachs from Linde AG last year, reported the total orders of its premium forklift brands Linde and Still, and value-segment brand OM recorded above industry-average growth for the first half of 2007 (Forkliftaction.com News #285).

The group’s incoming orders jumped 22% from EUR1.996 billion (USD2.716 billion) to EUR2.435 billion (USD3.313 billion) this year. The world forklift market grew by just under 11% from 1 January to 30 June 2007. Sales increased 9.8% from EUR1.933 billion (USD2.630 billion) to EUR2.123 billion (USD2.889 billion). Earnings before interest, tax and amortisation (EBITA) was EUR146.7 million (USD199.6 million) compared to last year’s EUR115.6 million (USD157.3 million).

In 2007, Kion will spend over EUR40 million (USD54.4 million) on its GoIPO synergy and improvement program to prepare Kion for a stock market listing.

Kion could be on the stock market as early as 2008. Its stated goal is to be IPO-ready in 2009.

“Regarding our internal processes, we will be marketable in 2008,” said chief financial officer Nadim Cen, adding he wants Kion to be valued at 10 times EBITA when it floats.

Its bottom line is expected to be in the red this year due to one-off costs for the leveraged buyout.

“We will fully digest the entire costs from the transaction in 2007,” Cen said.

While orders have increased this year, Krossa says the group’s production facilities are faced with the challenge of meeting them.

“The resources of our suppliers are limiting our growth and our factories are working at full capacity.

“Our employees are working extremely hard and are committed to supplying our customers in as short a timeframe as possible.”

The group also expects “substantial” cost savings to come from procurement synergies for Linde, Still and OM.

Kion employed 20,453 staff globally as of 30 June 2007, including 551 trainees, 2% more than the end of last year. About 62% of staff work outside Germany.

Deutz AG’s executive board chairman, Gordon Riske, will become chairman of Linde Material Handling GmbH’s management board and a Kion Group executive board member on 1 October 2007. Riske will eventually replace Krossa as Kion’s CEO.

Loadalls will have immobilisers
ROCESTER, United Kingdom

JCB will kit out telehandlers and other machines with theft-prevention systems from November.

JCB’s group chief operating officer Michael Taylor says JCB wants to lead the way in the UK on plant theft reduction with the introduction of immobilisers and the adoption of CESAR (Construction Equipment Security and Registration scheme) as standard on its products.

“One in three construction machines sold in the UK is a JCB, so as the country’s biggest plant manufacturer, we are fully committed to helping stamp out plant theft.”

CESAR has been developed by UK’s Metropolitan Police and the Home Office Plant Theft Action Group. Machines are embedded with microchips containing ownership details. Machines will also display two “tamper-resistant” security plates featuring a visible unique code.

Police will have access to a central database containing the details that will assist them in equipment recovery.

The scheme is managed by the Construction Equipment Association of Caterham, Surrey, and security specialist Datatag of Weybridge, Surrey, is providing security material and support.

Datatag’s mini-tags and microdots will be secreted throughout the machine to further deter potential thieves.

The immobilisation system will isolate the starter circuit, forward/reverse controls and fuel supply to the engine. The electrical functions will become operational with the use of a unique transponder key or a standard ignition key and keypad that requires an ID code.

From November, all construction equipment will be fitted with CESAR, while immobilisation will be introduced on side-engined Loadall telehandlers, mini-excavators and some backhoe loaders.

Separately, the Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward, will visit JCB’s world headquarters at Rocester on September 13 to present its Loadall telehandler business unit with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade section. Loadall has won two Queen’s Awards (in 1984 and 1996).

Forklift program mentioned in UK-based publisher’s book
MARTINSVILLE, NJ, United States

Monaco Group Inc president Joe Monaco says forklift operator training is sometimes wasted due to ignorance of human performance improvement principles.

Monaco tells Forkliftaction.com News expectations and feedback are commonly conveyed to a forklift operator before he or she has had the time to practise newly acquired skills and knowledge.

“Unfortunately, newly acquired skills are often extinguished as the operator attempts to practise them in the work environment where the supervisor might ‘punish’ the operator for lack of productivity.

“The operator is [just] trying to practise the new safe operating procedures he or she learned in training.”

Monaco boasts that LIFTOR, his company’s forklift operator training and management program, prioritises practice over theory and is based on the human performance improvement philosophy.

The program and Monaco’s consulting career is featured in “Human Performance Improvement”, a professional training book released this year.

Human performance improvement, the subject of the Butterworth-Heinemann book by William J Rothwell, Carolyn K Hohne and Stephen B King, is a field of professional practice drawn from different disciplines including human resources management and behavioural psychology.

LIFTOR applies these principles to training forklift operators.

Monaco explains the program avoids written testing, but incorporates optional classroom instruction, front-line supervisor action and a method for experienced operators to legally “test out” the training.

While forklift training is one of its central components, the program intervenes in all relevant aspects of the forklift operator’s workplace through changes in supervisory and management practices and equipment maintenance and engineering.

According to human performance improvement principles, people actively succeed in producing meaningful outcomes if three elements are present: The worker needs “clear expectations” of what a job requires, “sufficient resources” to do the job and “access to feedback” on job performance.

That is why, Monaco says, forklift operator training is wasted when operators are given expectations and feedback before they have sufficient resources to perform at work.

Monaco says most of the companies that are licensed to use LIFTOR are international, but he can’t disclose them due to confidentiality agreements.

He adds that many have downloaded materials from his company website and assembled their versions of a forklift operator safety process.

“We are generally happy to see all the download reports from the website and hope our copyrighted materials are used responsibly. The ‘free downloaders’ come from many different industries, including governments and consulting firms from around the globe.”

Briefs

Balkancar companies for sale
SOFIA, Bulgaria
Investors ignored stakes in Balkancar forklift companies during a one-day sale of 110 companies by the Bulgarian Privatisation Agency.

Sales exceeded BGL9 million (USD6.3 million) for shares in 32 companies that included insurer Armeec, the Bulgarian News Digest said, but no interest was received for the 67% stakes in Balkancar Erma and Balkancar ZFI.

JLG in hospital charity
McCONNELLSBURG, PA, United States
JLG Industries Inc has donated USD2.5 million to Fulton County Medical Centre (FCMC) for a new medical centre.

The medical centre, scheduled for completion in December, will provide health care for Fulton County and surrounding communities, including McConnellsburg, the hometown of JLG headquarters.

Shankar credits Toyota dealers
IRVINE, CA, United States
Toyota Material Handling USA Inc (TMHU) CEO Shankar Basu credits Toyota’s dealer network, customer service, technology innovations and commitment to quality for its world number one ranking for forklift sales in 2006.

Modern Materials Handling’s July 2007 issue noted Toyota reported the world’s highest global forklift sales revenue of over USD5.5 billion, a 9% rise from 2005.

Product News

Boat handling lifts European market
STURGEON BAY, WI, United States
Marine Travelift has introduced the Mariner 2500 to the European market.

The boat-handling forklift, first showcased at the Miami boat show, will lift 11,340kg (25,000lbs) at a 2.44-metre (8-foot) load centre. Its load capacity is 2,273kg (5,011lbs) greater than the previous model.

The forklift can suspend vessels from its two forks with straps slung under the hulls or support boats on their forks with rubber sheaths to prevent hull damage. Its 6.1-metre forks have maximum and minimum fork spreads of 3.8 metres (12.5 feet) and 1.4 metres (4.6 feet), respectively.

Noax’s mobile safety module
SARASOTA, FL, United States
Noax Technologies has introduced a German-made mobile safety module in North and South America, Europe and Russia.

The mobile safety module combined with a forklift computer assists in accident prevention and allows personalised forklift access.

Noax has over 20 years’ experience in the niche market of rugged touch-panel industrial computers.

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Skytrak	8042	2000	United States	USD 36500	Details
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Movers & Shakers

MEMPHIS, TN, United States
Heli Americas has appointed Lina Yi as marketing assistant. Yi will assist in growing the company’s marketing and operational functions, including sales and inventory management. She previously worked for Cummins Engine Recon Marketing Group. Yi has an electrical engineering degree and an MBA.

GREENWICH, CT, United States
Bradley S Jacobs, United Rentals Inc’s board of directors chairman, has stepped down as the company’s chairman and director. Jacobs served as chairman since co-founding United Rentals in 1997.  

SOUTHAMPTON, United Kingdom
Bac2, a fuel cell materials company, has appointed Jim Totczyk as head of production. Totczyk, a production engineering specialist, was head of operations at Meggitt Avionics. Previously, he spent 17 years at Brookes & Gatehouse, most recently as director of manufacturing, where he worked on polymer moulding techniques for hermetic sealing.

IBM says not its fault
United States

IBM insists it is not liable for a forklift accident that damaged a USD1.4 million computer.

As reported last week in Forkliftaction.com News, TR Systems is suing IBM in the US District Court in Alexandria, claiming poor packaging resulted in the server’s damage after it fell off a forklift in transit to a warehouse (Forkliftaction.com News #325).

According to media reports, IBM says in its court filing it was the customer’s own clumsiness that wrecked the computer.

IBM notes that TR Systems had conceded in its complaint that its own employee was operating the forklift at that time.

TR Systems, a federal contractor, is arguing that the computer would have withstood the jolt if it had been packaged properly.

So far, there’s been no comment from the driver involved in the costly “mishap”.

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Fosters trials LGVs
VICTORIA, Melbourne, Australia

Fosters, Australia’s largest alcohol company, will pilot a Laser Guided Vehicle (LGV) installation over the next six months to automate materials handling at its wine facility in Karadoc, Victoria.

The installation will be provided by Elettric 80, a global provider of end-of-line automation solutions.  The contract, worth an estimated $4.95 million, will entail the provision of 12 LGVs.

The solution has been designed to primarily transport finished goods from the various production lines to the storage areas. Two types of LGVs will be used at the site; a dual fork (twin tyne) version will take two pallets at a time to a block storage area and a single fork high-lifting reach LGV will store products up to eight metres high in a racking system.

The facility includes both block storage areas for stackable products and rack-based storage for non-stackable. The design of the Elettric 80 solution takes into account that the majority of finished product will be stored in racks. Rules and regulations surrounding rack-based storage have been included in the design.

The LGV vehicles will also bring finished goods from the store and picking areas to the various shipping positions for transportation to Foster's worldwide client base. In addition, LGVs will supply the production lines with empty pallet stacks and dry goods and remove waste materials.

The Karadoc facility will use Elettric 80's own Warehouse Management System (WMS) for the physical automation of products within the warehouse, whether it concerns taking pallets directly to the shipping area or storing them. In essence, the Elettric 80 software will work alongside Foster's existing WMS system and will automate the store, traffic and shipping management process.

The pilot will be significant for the company as forklifts play an important role, with some 418 units leased across its operations.  

The Victoria-based company, which last week released its financial results, operates three distilleries, two cideries, six breweries and 16 wineries, and comprises three business divisions: Australia, Asia and the Pacific; the Americas; and Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Within the Australasian region, it employs around 6,200 people and sells over 120 million 9lt equivalent cases, with export brands growing swiftly in key markets such as Japan, China and India.

Forklifts are used throughout the production cycle from fruit handling and processing at vineyards and wineries, to warehouse logistics for finished goods. A specially designed attachment that lifts 18 kegs at once is utilised in the keg handling section.

Its forklift fleet is leased from three main dealers, TMH, Adaptalift and United Equipment, and comprises a combination of petrol/diesel used in viticulture sites as well as LPG, battery electric forklifts and intrinsically safe electric units which are used when bulk spirits are handled.  


Last week’s financial results revealed that Foster's, whose products include Penfolds, Rosemount and Lindemans wines and beer brands Victoria Bitter and Foster's Lager, had a net profit of $966.2 million for 2006/07 - down 17.1% on the $1.17 billion bottom line in the prior year.

Annual net profit after tax, before significant items and self-generating and regenerating assets (SGARA), was up 16.8% to $716.2 million.

Foster's bottom-line result for fiscal 2007 included a $131.5 million after-tax gain on the sale of the Kent brewery site in Sydney. Bottom-line profit in fiscal 2006 included a $704.9 million gain from Foster's sale of breweries in Asia and beer brands in Europe.

Foster's revenue for the year to June 30 rose 5% to $4.76 billion.

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New cordless scanner for warehouses
SYDNEY, NSW, Australia

Supply chain innovator Intermec of Sydney has launched a hand-held cordless scanner using auto-focus technology, which it claims is the first and only near-far area imager in a hand-held device.

The product will be shipped to global customers this month, including a prominent transport and logistics organisation which has ordered 30 scanners for its Sydney warehouse.

The scanner is aimed at forklift-based warehousing applications, and improves productivity by extending the operator’s scanning reach and flexibility. Paired with a vehicle mount computer, it can read 1D, 2D, composite and postal codes in any orientation, from 15cm to 15 metres away.

The SR61 ex scanner, which utilises the company’s proprietary Intellibeam imaging technology, enables customers to improve warehouse productivity, consolidate devices and reduce total cost of ownership, the company claims.

Operators can seamlessly transition from scanning an object in their hands, to scanning a pallet high up on a rack, to capturing an image. Tightly integrated Bluetooth wireless communication ensures smooth data transmission to the host computer, and with no cables to manage, operator safety and efficiency is also increased.  

The scanner delivers an array of benefits for warehouse operations, including:

• Omni-directional scanning—no arm twisting or package moving needed to get a good read
• Improved reads at low angles—easily captures top-shelf bar codes in narrow aisles
• Reads in low light conditions—auto-illuminating feature scans accurately in dim light
• Easy to use in bright light—on-board scope assists barcode targeting outdoors
• Reads damaged or obscured codes, including barcodes covered in plastic wrap

Built to withstand harsh operating environments such as multiple drops to concrete and hot and cold temperatures, the scanner is sealed against dirt and water and comes equipped with a long-lasting lithium battery that delivers more than 10 hours of use and is easily changed, minimising downtime.