Ross Grassick

North Fork Group, the majority-owned Australian subsidiary of Nishio Rent All Co Ltd, has acquired the assets and business operations of Lencrow Forklifts.

Lencrow Forklifts is a leading forklift hire, sales and service provider, which has been servicing the materials handling sector since 1976. The business is headquartered in Silverwater, NSW with branches located in Archerfield (Brisbane), Newcastle, Hallam (Melbourne) and Regency Park (Adelaide).

Lencrow director Ross Grassick says: "This is an exciting time for Lencrow as the acquisition will allow the business to grow more quickly and with more impact by leveraging the group's scale and resources in a way that was not previously possible."

Managing director of North Fork Steven Cunliffe says: "The addition of Lencrow to the North Fork Group will allow us to build a stronger organisation, resulting in a rental fleet with over 3,500 forklifts. This, coupled with the group's breadth and depth of product range, will provide greater choice and a compelling value proposition to our customers."

Financial details of the acquisition were not revealed.

Grassick will stay on as general manager and North Fork has no plans to close branches.

"We plan to leverage the group's scale and points of presence," says Francis Lal, general manager, marketing & business development. "For example, the addition of a branch network in Newcastle and Adelaide allows North Fork Group to provide products and services to existing and new customers in this region. In addition, we plan to take advantage of best practice across the entities - Fork Force, Hystandard and Lencrow."

Lencrow has been operating in the industry since 1976. It began as a father and son partnership -Grassick and his father, Keith - trading under the name Allforks Hire in Silverwater, Sydney.

From the 1980s, Allforks Hire pioneered forklift transport, 'fork and driver' services and all-terrain forklift equipment hire.

In the 1990s, Lencrow launched a branch in Brisbane, trading under Hi-Lift Materials Handling. Next came a move to Melbourne, with the purchase of Pro-Fork.