Alta Lift Truck Services Inc extended its presence in the Michigan market with its 1 October acquisition of the assets of Van's Industrial Equipment Co. Terms were not disclosed.

A desire to continue to grow was Wixom-based Alta Lift's motivation for the deal.

"Van's has a solid reputation based on years of high quality service and dedication to its customers," says Robert Kohler, Alta executive vice president of sales and marketing, noting that Van's has been in business for 76 years.

Under the purchase agreement with Bob and Jack Vander Sloot, Alta will retain the majority of Van's employees and assets. Alta did not purchase the Van's facility in Wyoming, Michigan.

About 11 miles (17.6km) separate the Van's building and a 30,000-square-foot (2,700sm) Alta site in Kentwood, Michigan.
President Steven Greenawalt founded Alta Lift Truck Services in 1984.

Since 1999, Alta has invested in seven state-of-the-art material handling equipment facilities in Kentwood, Saginaw, Romulus, Muskegon, Zeeland, Battle Creek and Sterling Heights, Michigan. In addition to those sites and Wixom, another branch is located in Lansing, Michigan.
Including retained Van's workers, Alta now employs about 240 staff.

As a full-service dealership, Alta sells, rents and trades material handling equipment of the Yale, Sellick, Combilift, Taylor, Landoll Bendi and Drexel, Rico, Big Joe and Motrec brands.

Recently, Alta received dealer of excellence honours from both Yale Materials Handling Corp of Greenville, South Carolina and Combilift Inc of Monaghan, Ireland.