Darr Equipment Co and Equipos Multiples de Guatemala SA have been named as forklift dealers for Palfinger North America.

Fourth generation family-owned Darr Equipment assumes a region with 81 counties in Texas and 75 counties in Oklahoma.

"Adding Darr Equipment as our dealer in north Texas and Oklahoma is another example of Palfinger's movement in establishing the finest sales and service dealer organisation for truck-mounted forklifts in North America," says Rick Bloom, southeastern sales manager for Palfinger North America.

Darr Equipment was founded in 1954, employs more than 100 factory-trained technicians, operates through seven locations including its headquarters in Southlake, Texas and, in various markets, also represents the JCB, Caterpillar, Mitsubishi, Doosan, Sellick, Kalmar and Genie brands.

In Guatemala, the dealership known as Multiequipos adds Palfinger knuckle boom cranes, truck-mounted forklifts and Epsilon products to its current responsibilities for products of Palfinger American Roll-Off and Equipment Technology LLC.

Multiequipos is based in Guatemala City, has another location in Quetzaltenango and also services neighbouring Central American countries such as Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize. Separately, a Multiequipos affiliate has two locations in Panama.

Multiequipos in Guatemala has "eight sales persons in addition to the sales-oriented general manager, Edwin Reyes", says Andrés Magallón, regional sales manager for Palfinger North America.

Palfinger's North America group employs more than 1,100 staff and has six manufacturing locations and 10 wholly owned distribution locations. The Niagara Falls-based group was formed following acquisitions of MBB Interlift, Omaha Standard Inc, Automated Waste Equipment and Equipment Technology LLC.

Publicly traded parent firm Palfinger AG is based in Salzburg, Austria.