Airtrax Inc will close its acquisition of FiLCO GmbH early next year and expects the business to manufacture USD50 million worth of forklifts by year-end 2005.

Airtrax approached FiLCO majority stakeholder Fil Filipov early this year, and announced the acquisition in March (Forkliftaction.com News #148). FiLCO was formed after Filipov acquired the bankrupt former Clark Material Handling Gmbh in April 2003 (Forkliftaction.com News #104).

Airtrax president Peter Amico said the acquisition remained subject to final due diligence and other conditions to be met by both parties, but said the move would allow the company to "turn a significant corner" in creating potential sales avenues for its Sidewinder omni-directional forklift.

"Leveraging FiLCO's key assets and existing dealership network, we look forward to manufacturing and marketing our omni-directional vehicles from their facility in the near future," he said.

"Based on FiLCO's current manufacturing facilities, Airtrax believes it will have the ability to produce up to USD50 million of conventional FiLCO forklift product by year-end 2005.

"Once we commence production of our omni-directional vehicles at FiLCO, we expect to significantly raise our initial year-end revenue projections."