Michael Romano took over a Raymond dealership in Illinois two years ago and now oversees construction of a new company headquarters.

Associated Material Handling Industries Inc plans to inject USD9.5 million into an 80,000 square foot (7,200 square metre) facility in Addison, Illinois, about three miles (4.8km) from the Carol Stream headquarters it has occupied since 1996. Associated was founded in 1960.

"We will consolidate our main operations," Romano told Forkliftaction.com News. The business would probably leave its 47,000 square foot (4,200 square metre) site and 16,000 square foot (1,400 square metre) offsite warehouse by December.

Space limitations drove the relocation. The headquarters has 170 employees and may have 200 in three years, Romano said. The move allows a fresh reconfiguration of the office layout.

Associated has six locations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota and serves North Dakota and South Dakota. It employs 360 people and had 2006 sales of USD120 million, up from the previous year's USD113 million.

Over the next two years, Romano intends to institute "a branding program driven to create a singular image in markets we serve". Locations in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Eagan, Minnesota, trade as Associated Material Handling name, and facilities in Peoria, Illinois, and Akeny, Iowa, trade as Allied Handling Equipment Co.

All locations distribute Raymond's classes 1, 2 and 3 lines, including narrow aisle lift trucks, walkie low lift units and counterbalanced lift trucks.

In June, Associated relocated its Indianapolis operations about 20 miles to a newly constructed 30,000-square-foot (2,700 square-metre) facility, investing more than USD3 million in the project.

During 2007, Associated plans to invest USD750,000 to install Edgerton Corp's Irium materials handling industry-specific business system for all locations and have it operational by September. The system will replace existing software.

Industry involvement

Romano was the 2002 president of the Material Handling Equipment Distributors' Association (MHEDA) and is now MHEDA's audit committee chairman.

He chairs MHEDA's industry advocacy committee and is involved with the multi-organisation Material Handling Industry Awareness Council. He pursues efforts to attract "new blood" and upgrade customer perceptions.

One effort aims to boost recognition of the materials handling industry's strategic value to its users. "We are faced with a disproportionate balance of price-value relationship," he said. "Our customers do not appreciate the value we bring. They only look at price. We are being crunched on price and margin."

Romano wants to raise awareness about the industry among academics.
"We need to attract future industry talent. We are trying to target colleges and universities to give them an insight into our industry."

Accounting background

Romano, 53, grew up in New Jersey, and obtained a bachelor of science degree in accounting from Villanova University, in Villanova, Pennsylvania, in 1975. He started his career as a certified public accountant with Deloitte & Touche LLP. He joined a Raymond distributor, Dierckx Equipment Corp, in New York City, in 1980 as controller and, in 1989, became president and chief operating officer.

During his Dierckx tenure through to 1990, Romano developed a financial merchandising concept that encouraged forklift buyers to consider the financial implications of acquisitions in addition to traditional operating objectives.

That approach differed from the industry standard on merchandising financial investments and allowed a buyer to understand and quantify the benefits and value of deferred payments versus competing alternatives.

Greene, New York-based Raymond hired Romano in 1990 as the firm's first director of national accounts. He established relationships with major retailers, such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Home Depot Inc and Circuit City Stores Inc, establishing Raymond's initial national accounts.

In 1996, Romano became CEO of, and an equity owner in, a Raymond dealership, Abel, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, covering several states in the Northeast. Abel added the Womack distributorship in southern Connecticut and eastern New York State in 1999 to become Abel-Womack Integrated Handling Solutions Inc. Romano led the dealership to consistent sales and profit growth and, in late 2004, sold his investment to his partner, president John Croce.

In 1999, he was among the inaugural recipients of the Raymond Circle of Excellence Award.

Through his Raymond connections, Romano acquired a majority ownership and became president and CEO of Associated and Allied, effective from January 1, 2005. He is one of Raymond's 23 dealer principals in North America.

Romano has written articles about strategic planning, equipment leasing, customer satisfaction and benchmarking.

He enjoys spectator and participative sports, including basketball, football, baseball, tennis and golf. His favorite travel destinations include London, Paris, Arizona, California and Hawaii. Romano and his wife, Ann, have three daughters.