Ed Neyer

An Equipment Depot dealership has added the equipment of Clark Material Handling Co to its product mix for the market serving greater Cincinnati and Lexington, Kentucky.

Effective 7 November, "the appointment provides Clark with continuous coverage from south of Lexington to north of Cincinnati along the important Interstate-75 business corridor," says Scott Johnson, director of dealer services for Lexington-based Clark.

Because the dealership's region overlaps Clark's home base, "we are planning a number of sales and marketing elements for central Kentucky that combine the strengths of our companies," Johnson notes. "For example, Equipment Depot will be a part of Clark's Lexington Christmas parade presentation."

The dealership has talked with Clark representatives periodically, and they began meaningful discussions in mid-2008, observes Ed Neyer, dealership president and chief executive officer.

The dealership is adding a separate dedicated sales force of three persons to market "the Clark brand to customers we do not have" at this time, Neyer notes. His existing full-service forklift organisation will support Clark forklifts along with the dealership's service for the Caterpillar, Linde and Mitsubishi brands in its three Cincinnati area sites and one Lexington location. A fourth Cincinnati facility handles only aerial telehandlers.

In July, prompted by business growth, Neyer's organisation opened a 9,100-square-foot (819sqm) Dayton, Ohio facility representing Nissan and Linde forklifts. Dave Kelly, who has been with the organisation since 1989, heads the new location. The dealership had served the Dayton market from previously existing locations since 2004.

Also, the dealership represents Caterpillar through facilities in Nitro and Vienna, West Virginia. That business was acquired from Walker Machinery in April 2001.

For all locations, the dealership employs 375, including 208 technicians, and has a rental fleet inventory of about 2,500 units, including forklifts and aerial telehandlers.

Neyer's organisation is among three regional forklift operations currently adopting the common brand name Equipment Depot within the Pon North America (PNA) materials handling group. The Cincinnati-Lexington business was founded in 1960 and, prior to 1 October, operated as Portman Equipment Co (Forkliftaction.com News #384). PNA acquired Portman in January 2004.

"We have already changed the building signs (to Equipment Depot), and we have changed (identity on) half of our services vehicles" so far, Neyer says. The remaining vehicles will display the Equipment Depot logo before the end of 2008.

The PNA group oversees five US regional forklift dealerships and is a unit of trading company Pon Holdings BV, of Nijkerk, the Netherlands. Don Moes is president of the Waco, Texas-based PNA group.

Equipment Depot regional dealerships also represent Clark in Houston, Dallas and Waco, Texas; Peoria, Illinois; and Harrisburg and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.