 Scholarship winner Alexandra Dale |
Equipment dealership Forklift Systems Inc awards a USD1,000 undergraduate scholarship through an essay contest that in its inaugural year attracted 273 submissions from 26 states.
The family-owned firm's Giving Students A Lift program led to the award being given in February to Alexandra Dale of Jeffersonville, Indiana, a sophomore at the University of Louisville.
"Alexandra effectively and concisely communicated her passion to pursue an education in teaching," says Duane Hardy, president of Forklift Systems. The program was established to help one promising student accomplish his or her dream of achieving a college degree and is open to all students of accredited US colleges and universities.
Forklift Systems plans to accept essays for its next scholarship award with a deadline of 30 November.
Duane's father, Charles Hardy, started the business in Nashville in 1978 and retired in 2003. Duane's sister, Kathy Henry, is chief financial officer. Forklift Systems has a second location in Birmingham, Alabama.
Forklift Systems employs 82 staff and began representing the Datsun forklift brand, now Nissan by UniCarriers, in 1978. It added Doosan forklifts in 2007 and JLG access equipment in 2004.
The transition of Nissan to the UniCarriers' brand "has been a non-factor with customers so far", Duane Hardy says. "We had a record year in 2014, and 17% of our customers were new to Forklift Systems and its products (with UniCarriers accounting for) a large portion of this growth". Established in 2012, UniCarriers Americas Corp is based in Marengo, Illinois with regional responsibilities for the Nissan, TCM and Barrett forklift brands.
Other than product colour, "most customers see that everything looks the same" - including managers, sales and technical personnel and service providers, he notes.
"We have a number of companies in our Tennessee and Alabama territory that provide automotive parts to Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes," Hardy says. "We have been locked out with the Nissan name due to competitive issues in the auto business. UniCarriers will not have this issue so that is one of the reasons we feel very optimistic in the change."