Coresential logistics manager Peter Gherini (left) and Ring Power area salesman Joe Zevchak

Electrical and lighting specialist Coresential has acquired three battery-powered forklifts after accepting tenets about the long-term value of the investment.

Liquefied petroleum gas powers four ongoing pieces of Coresential materials handling equipment, according to Peter Gherini, logistics manager with Coresential in Tampa. Coresential disposed of three other LPG units.

"We go back 20 years with their organisation, and I was finally able to show them the long-term cost savings of converting to electric," says Joe Zevchak, area salesman at the Ring Power Lift Trucks facility in Riverview, Florida near Tampa.

"We talked before the recession in 2006/7, and I quoted electrics way back then," Zevchak recalls.

In 2012, Zevchak and Ring Power product support representative Jason Marmino proposed a fleet replacement plan that was designed to lower Coresential's overall cost of forklift ownership and improve productivity.

"Their equipment was getting older and more expensive to repair, the economy picked up and we did reports showing the overall return on investment over five years," Zevchak notes.

The plan called for Ring Power providing product demonstrations in Riverview and Coresential's acquisition of two Caterpillar E6000 four-wheel electric trucks with 6,000 lb. (2,700 kg) capacities and a Clark OSX15 electric order picker with 3,000 lb. (1,350 kg) capacity. As part of the project, Ring Power provided Coresential with a watering system including a cart.

"We have been operating the electrics for almost year," Gherini says.

Serving wholesalers and end-users, Coresential represents manufacturer product lines for electrical, lighting and communications in Florida, the Caribbean region and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

Coresential combines the operations of Gunn-Creel & Associates Inc in Tampa and, since a 2009 merger, Electrical Marketing Services, then of Altamonte Springs in central Florida near Orlando.

Coresential employs about 45 and occupies 49,000 sqft. (4,552 sqm) in Tampa.

Ring Power Lift Trucks has 10 forklift branches in Florida and operates as the forklift and materials handling division of Ring Power Corp of St Augustine, Florida. The forklift division represents the Cat, Mitsubishi, Clark, Kalmar, Linde, Jungheinrich, Big Joe, Liftking, Princeton, Navigator, Combilift, Bendi and Drexel brands.

Parent company Ring Power is a major Caterpillar equipment dealer, employs a total of more than 1,700 and, including the forklift branches, has 26 locations in Florida and seven other states.