Svetruck is a Swedish-based manufacturer of medium-to-large forklifts. Forkliftaction.com News spoke with Anna Arvsell, Svetruck's marketing director, this week at the CeMAT fair in Hannover.

Q. What are your company's products or services?

Svetruck AB manufactures and sells heavy-duty forklifts for a wide range of applications, including sawmills, paper and pulp factories, container ports, stevedoring terminals and rail terminals. Many Svetruck forklifts are found in the logging and timber industries and the company has just supplied eight custom-designed forklifts to Alaska Marine Lines and we have two more on order. The machine travels with a container barge up and down the Alaskan coast to assist in unloading at all ports. This is the biggest machine we have produced to date: the machine weighs 90 tonnes and pickes up 53' containers weighing up to 55 tonnes and stacking up to 5 containers high.

Q.Give a brief history of your company's involvement in the materials handling business.

Sture and Holger Andersson established Svetruck in 1977. Between them they had over 10 years experience in the forklift industry. Their business still operates from its original base in Ljungby, Sweden. One of Svetruck's earliest innovations was the design of the world's first full visibility mast for heavy forklifts.

Q. What is your company's current position in the regional market? How about globally?

Currently Svetruck has enough orders for the factory, so the company is not actively looking to expand its dealer network or customer base. Because Svetruck believes in absolute quality control in all facets of production, lead time is often a few months. The company has forklifts in about 100 countries.

Q. What makes your company outstanding in its market?

True quality is the company motto and that is what makes it stand out in the materials handling industry. Svetruck is committed to the Svetruck product from conception through to construction, delivery and service. That way the company has complete control over every section of the machine so the entire machine is assembled at our Ljungby plant.

Q. Tell us your company's future plans.

Svetruck has no plans to expand international markets, although demand to do so is always high. At the moment the company is committed to continued production of reliable, high-quality machines, specifically designed for customer's needs.