Forklift supplier ForkForce has purchased forklift hire companies Munquip of Brisbane and Munlift of Toowoomba, jointly owned by forklift doyen Leo De Munnik who has been involved in the forklift industry for the past 40 years.

ForkForce MD Steve Cunliffe tells Forkliftaction.com News that the multi-million dollar purchase of the two businesses adds around 100 rental units - mainly Hyster and Yale - to the company's stock, bringing it to over 500.

"We were looking to grow our hire fleet capability as we see more growth in hire than sales over the next five years, and the fit between our business and Leo's was good."

ForkForce, which suffered major flood damage to its Rocklea premises in the January 2011 Queensland floods, has recently moved to a new 6,000 sqm super-complex in Darra.

Cunliffe says all staff from the new acquisitions will be maintained. "We will be merging Munquip with ForkForce at our Darra premises, while the Munlift business in Toowoomba will become another ForkForce regional office, linked to our major new Darra head office."

He adds that the Toowoomba business has great potential, with a good customer base, excellent service and close proximity to some big gas projects to the west of the town.

"We intend to slowly upgrade the fleets with newer machines from our Enforcer range of forklifts which have proved to be extremely popular with our customers."