Robert C Warren Jr

Forklift load engagement products maker Cascade Corp remains highly sensitive to any perception of conflict of interest as a subsidiary since 28 March of Toyota Industries Corp.

"There is no information anyone could get on any transaction that would pay for the loss of the business Cascade would experience," says Robert C Warren Jr, Cascade president and chief executive officer. "If anything, we are more diligent than before in our message to everyone."

Confidentiality has always been a guiding principle, he tells Forkliftaction.com News.

Warren notes that TICO and Cascade gave notice in a joint letter on 30 October 2012 about their adherence to "the values of absolute integrity" in the then-proposed combination of the businesses. Warren and TICO president Tetsuro Toyoda signed the letter, which was distributed to Cascade customers on the day after the announcement of TICO's tender offer for Cascade.

"The letter is about as unambiguous as you can get," says Richard Anderson, Cascade senior vice president and chief operating officer. "They have provided us with a firewall policy that the TICO legal staff developed. We cannot share. That supports our agnostic view."

Cascade became an operating subsidiary of TICO and, while sharing a parent company, remains independent of TICO's extensive global forklift business operations.

Warren says, "We have never been able to have favourites. We just want the attachments order."

Cascade acknowledges competing "with a number of companies in different parts of the world, including Bolzoni Auramo, an Italian public company, and privately owned companies with a strong presence in local and regional markets. A small number of these competitors compete with us globally."

Bolzoni SpA is moving forward.

"Bolzoni group is planning investment in the production plants in Asia and America," Carlo Fallarini, marketing and sales director for Bolzoni in Casoni di Podenzano, Italy, tells Forkliftaction.com News. "This decision is mainly driven by the growing markets we are experiencing in those areas thanks to a growth in the forklift truck numbers."

In certain cases and geographic areas, the TICO-Cascade affiliation "may have an impact as well", Fallarini says.

Several forklift manufacturers are simultaneously Cascade customers and "in varying degrees (competitors) to the extent they manufacture a portion of their load engagement product requirements".

Historically, Cascade sees confidentiality as an ongoing concern on multiple levels. "It was a concern when we first went directly to the street to work with dealers rather than OEMs," Warren notes. "We cannot give a remote appearance" of any breach of confidentiality.

Cascade, with TICO's strong support, is signing binding confidentiality agreements with those forklift dealers seeking that level of assurance.

Warren notes that TICO has previous experience in another forklift-related market involving counterweights, a product he terms "even more sensitive than we would be". A counterweight on a forklift frame is designed to counterbalance the load being lifted.

TICO and a partner established North Vernon Industry Corp of North Vernon, Indiana as an independently operated gray iron foundry in the US in 1996. TICO acquired the partner's portion of the ownership in January 2010 and operates the business now as the dominant US counterweight supplier to forklift manufacturers.

Warren joined Cascade in 1972, held positions as vice president of marketing and president and chief operating officer and, since 1996, president and CEO.

For the fiscal year ended 31 January, Cascade reports profit of USD46.9 million on sales of USD538.4 million.
Kariya, Japan-based TICO is a transportation equipment company that manufactures and sells automobiles, materials handling equipment and textile machinery.

Cascade's materials handling load engagement devices include forks and clamps and related replacement parts for use on forklift trucks and, to a lesser extent, on construction and agricultural vehicles. Cascade's principal offices are in Fairview.