Not sure about selling at a loss I have seen a price of 30,000 lb truck at over 230000 us dollars.never mind selling at a loss at these prices they are on a different planet

Agreed! Sales is a difficult one. Lots of good sales people have been victims of circumstance , due to manufactures 'giving away trucks' at what must be a loss ! Not sure how long losses can be sustained for !
But many customers see through the deals, and opt for quality service of the independent dealers

Lots of negativity on Briggs here.
There have been a lot of changes in Briggs in the last two years alone, and i would agree some of the characters i met over three years ago weren't up to the task, too many people involved (and i'm looking at this from a customer / buyer perspective)
Which is a shame really, a lot of Briggs sales guys i've met in the last 12 months have been pretty decent blokes, i even met Mr.Close himself once, and i saw commitment support the Yale Hyster brands here in the UK and i can say they work pretty hard in trying to get sales.
Sales guys do not always have an easy time, some of the sales guys i've dealt with not just from Briggs but other suppliers are under tremendous pressure and you can see why there is a high turnover rate, i'd say don't criticise before you've had a go yourself, they all have targets to achieve or there will be engineers going up the road and whether you like sales people or not, good ones are worth their weight in gold and deserve the rewards, as they are only as good as their last sale.
They are no different to any of the players in the UK market, Linde, Crown, Junghenirich, they all have their problems.
One thing i found with the Yale Hyster product is that it is an excellent product and robust and the service side is probably the best out there in the UK, they are certainly people who go the extra mile, i know that they have the engineers interests at heart, it might not be easy to spot, but some of the things i've seen is enough to convince me. Equipment is a little on the expensive side compared to Linde for example, and trying to get that past the finance director is a bit of an ask.
I'd say in another 12/24 months Briggs will be in a better position, to restructure their cost to make their kit more competitive, just have to keep the faith and plough on.

M3 must be the most useless system ever devised ! Labour intensive its only marginally better than ink and paper. I think there must be something seriously wrong for Mr Close to leave and for the new guy who won't be joining after all. I think it's about time that all the directors went on a customer relations training course.
A ship with out a captain you surely run aground !

Middle managers will always be the same, pi$$ on everyone beneath them, and kiss every a$$ above them !

Still seems to be alot more chiefs than indians.

All seems a bit un necessary for a company that sells , hires and repairs forklifts.

And at the heart of all the chaos , everyone seems to be battling the big ole beast 'M3' aka 'the system '

That's a record even for Briggs the guy quite befor he started, whoever the Americans bring in needs to start looking at middle management, you know the kind 50k a year company cars, phones, computers etc and never seen a fork truck. Or the salesman 30k a year plus commission, car, phone, computers etc and yet to sell a truck. They have a higher turnover in salesmen then they do in equipment

Well the new bloke didn't last long....

Great speculation but don't bet your house on it. It's all about Al Rankin and his game plan.

It was announced a few months ago.
Set up his own business http://graywolfmanagement.com/
gray wolfmanagement.com

Business advice, mergers and acquisitions.

That seems like a bit of a reach...

I can see it the other way round. Him going to NACCO to open the way for Briggs to buy NACCO.