Marshall Cromer

Northern California forklift dealership Cromer Material Handling is moving two branches into larger facilities.

Cromer acquired a 13,000 sqft. (1,189 sqm) Manteca building on 1.3 acres for about USD750,000 and invested USD100,000 for upgrades in the site once occupied by Watts Equipment Co Inc.

Cromer's 10 mi. (16 km) move to Manteca from a leased 5,500 sqft. (503 sqm) Stockton facility is scheduled for completion by 15 January. Cromer took a short-term lease on the Stockton site after its acquisition of Quality Lift Truck Inc in June 2011.

Now, the Manteca location has 10 employees and represents the Doosan, Kalmar, Heli and Donkey brands.

In another transition, Marshall Cromer says he has completed a lease and will move West Sacramento operations two blocks and double available space for the branch to 16,000 sqft. (1,463 sqm). "We will move in 60 days," he says.

Oakland-based Cromer Material Handling has a total of 70 employees and operates a Santa Rosa repair facility in addition to the Manteca and West Sacramento branches.

The business had 2013 sales of about USD19 million with projections for about USD21 million in the coming year, says Cromer, who has adopted the tag "the forklift boss" for his Twitter account. "We are having fun with it."

Cromer is president of East Bay Clarklift Inc, doing business as Cromer Material Handling.