Southern's Tulsa facility

Operating in heartland fossil fuel-dominant markets, milestone-marking Southern Material Handling Company is positioned with the Toyota brand to deal with the changing economy in eastern Oklahoma and south western Missouri.

Herb Arst established the Tulsa-based dealership on 1 September, 1948.

Now, the dealership employs 84 and has completed 60 years of service.

The economy will pass through the current turmoil, which is "largely of the media's making", Mark Segress says. "We saw it before. We talk ourselves into slowdowns."

Segress, 52, president and chief executive officer, and Jim McDonough, 56, executive vice president, co-own the business now. Segress joined the firm in 1978 and McDonough in 1979.

Getting financing is not an issue. "We have the benefit of using the captive Toyota Financial (Services) if a customer wants financing," Segress notes.

Much of the volume for Southern's market involves forklifts with internal combustion engines.

Representing Clark in Oklahoma, Arst sold the dealership in 1976 to Carl Monroe and Cal Bakel. Carl's son, David Monroe, ran the business after his father's death in 1991. "Carl Monroe was an old Clark guy and was in Battle Creek (Michigan) with the Clark factory," Segress recalls.

David Monroe, Segress and McDonough purchased the business in 2002, and Monroe retired and sold his interest in early 2008.

Southern expanded to a second site in Muskogee, Oklahoma for Clark in 1979 and began representing the Crown line in both Oklahoma locations in 1981. The Toyota line was added in 1994.

Another expansion in 2002 positioned a Southern branch in Springfield, Missouri exclusively representing Toyota. The CEO's brother, Kent Segress, is vice president of branch operations and runs the Springfield site.

"Our employees are the strength of our company," Mark Segress observes. For several Southern employees, "it is the only job they have ever had."