Yes it has been a long trip , But nothing comes easily and you do have to work to get there. One thing it dose show if you keep on plugging away you will get there eventually. My advise to any one who is thinking of going it alone and setting
up on there own is no matter what happens you will have up's and downs but if you keep on going it will be well worth it in the end.

Well done
Keep up the pressure
You will get there eventually

Hi Normandy

there are just a couple of small matters to sort out with our Saudi investors then we shall be ready to produce the first trucks. We don't expect problems with this as they will be using well developed components so this should be quite straight forward and quick. These will be the first of what i know of that will be full tier iiii final ready with a SCR system in the 6 - 8 ton range ,

Hi Davy

how is your project coming along?

Any machines up and running yet

Rgds

The problem seems to be that the market has become very competitive , with the emerging Chinese manufactures now have got they hands on some quite good designed equipment and are using western suppliers ,the established companies are now looking at way's to move there equipment. One way is to have two or more dealers in one area another is to squeeze there suppliers. They can't be seen to just drop there prices so they use dealers to do it for them. The problem will occur when good dealers decide to look at other equipment from what i have noticed like in the auto market dealers will start to supply a number of manufactures and then pitch the manufactures against each other. In the UK Linde own all there dealers so they can be quite competitive if they need be also in other areas of Europe this happens with manufactures
owning there sales and service network This allows for them to squeeze interdependent dealers.

It seems to me that no one will allow the "other guy" that they are buying from to make any profit but everyone seems to want to get ahead in life by making more money. One question, what happens when you are the "other guy"?

I think this a trend we'll all be seeing more of. Just as the auto industry is evolving ( I've bought 2 new cars online- both custom ordered- saving thousands over local dealers & spending 1/2 the time ordering) the forklift industry will evolve as well. Having multiple dealers in an area is only good for the manufacturer- moving more product. I have 2 Toyota dealers within 45 minutes of each other & I have to admit it is a sellling point. The customer has twice the chance of being able to get a dealer part in stock. Their parts pricing is comparible so that's not an issue.

It's been that way for a long time...scrape off the paint and you'll find Raymond red. Heck, I've got one Clark order picker in my fleet that was made by Prime Mover with Raymond electronics that I can program with a Raymond hand held.

If you look at Raymond manuals they pretty much have used the same jargon in all but after the buy out by BT certain manuals and wire markings have changed like on the RAS stacker and the 102XM. And then after the buy out by Toyota you won't find Prime Movers, Cats and Mitsis with Raymond electronics anymore.

One thing I find odd with Toyota is over here in Europe you can pretty much buy exactly the same forklift from the core range with either BT, Toyota or Cesab stickers & badges on it painted in the relevant manufacturers colours.

Do I fancy a BT Reflex RRE250 or a Toyota 8FBRE25 or how about a Cesab R325, doesnt matter there all the same under the skin.

Another thing is the 3 different brands no matter which machine in the range it is all have different software packages installed!

Im pretty sure a few of the Raymond models have appeared over here in the past with BT branding on.

When will Toyota and Raymond start to merge dealers. The Toyota dealer in Phila./Baltimore is going factory store. Kenco pulling the plug.

bbforks
Not our case, most of the trucks sold around here are required not to be electronically controlled by customer. On those trucks who must have electronics, customer usually finds a way to go to non-oem dealers for less expensive solutions. With so many aftermarket parts suppliers, we are actually into the multi-brand parts and service business ourselves.

I just did business with a wholesaler today & this topic came up. He's seen a dramtic increase in the last few years of multi-line forklift dealerships. I believe that the manufacturers are now following the pricing philosphy of back end profits- where the selling price is not where they make their money, but on parts afterwards. With forklifts now all being electronically controlled- most with dealer only access to the diagnostics- the dealership is the gatekeeper to the parts supplied- which will naturally come from their manufactuerer.

Serious problem for us. After 12 years of promoting a brand that has had many warranty issues through the later years, which we have had to deal with ourselves, a new dealer was named. Since the new dealer wants to start selling, we are losing sales to dumb pricing and sales strategies. It's not only bad for us, but I believe in the long run this will have a terrible outcome for the factory if they don't at least regulate pricing between dueling dealers. This gets worse in a small country like ours with a merely 80 truck per year market were competition was already tough and were all major players as well as unkown brands are fighting for market share. Will manufacturers eventually come to their senses?

Heh heh heh...some of the salesmen I've had to deal with around here would be more like Les Nesman...band aids and all.

Birdman, I love your "WKRP in Cincinatti refrence"!!!