Leavitt Machinery USA acquired the assets of Premier Lift Truck Services Inc of Tualatin, Oregon on June 1 and will operate from the location, using the Leavitt Machinery name.

The site serves the Portland metropolitan area and represents Hyundai forklifts, Manitou forklifts and telehandlers, Hoist lift trucks, JLG and Genie aerial lifts, Cushman industrial equipment and TICO tractor trailers. Premier has operated in the market for 24 years.

Chris Carroll sold the business and continues with Leavitt as the location's branch manager. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Leavitt has viewed the potential of the Portland market for some time and believes Premier Lift Truck was a natural fit, says Tom Leavitt, president and CEO of Leavitt Machinery General Partnership.

Leavitt Machinery USA is a subsidiary of the privately held partnership, which is based in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.

The partnership employs 460 staff including 21 from the Premier acquisition, is a full-service materials handling dealership with 21 locations in three Canadian provinces and two US states, and represents 22 brands of forklift, aerial lift, scissor lift, telehandler, container handler, reach stacker, sweeper and scrubber equipment.

In 2001, Leavitt purchased the materials handling equipment division of Finning International Inc of Vancouver, British Columbia.

In addition to Tualatin, other Leavitt branches are in Mount Vernon, Seattle and Spokane, Washington; Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie and Red Deer, Alberta; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; and Vancouver, Langley, Kamloops, Kelowna, Kitimat, Nanaimo, Penticton, Prince George, Sparwood, Vernon and Victoria, British Columbia.