Lisman Vorkheftrucks's third equipment showroom in Ijsselstein.

Lisman Vorkheftrucks has opened a third equipment showroom in Ijsselstein for its rough-terrain forklifts, telehandlers, warehouse forklifts and other industrial equipment.

"We aim to further develop our position in the international used machine wholesale market," says Koen Lisman, managing director and co-owner of the company.

Lisman tells Forkliftaction.com News that his business is the largest used material handling equipment wholesaler in Europe, selling 5,500 units to dealers in 2008.

"We are not gloomy about the future. Even in these difficult times, Lisman is continuing to invest," he says.

The expansion comes despite the used equipment seller's challenges over the past year. After years of steady growth, Lisman streamlined its organisation by downsizing staff from 70 - an all-time high in early 2008 - to 55. Eight employees were made redundant while temporary staff lost jobs and older staff retired.

Lisman explains that the company needs a minimum stock of 1,600 available machines in one centralised location for it to consolidate its market-leading position.

Hence, Lisman seized the opportunity to build a third showroom on its existing location in Ijsselstein.

"Customers can now visit the 'Lisman truck boulevard' (with its) three clearly segmented showrooms and select the trucks of their choice," Lisman says.

The new premises (B-hall) have a storage area of about 6,000sqm (64,583sqft). There are forklifts over four tonnes, telehandlers, rough-terrain forklifts and high-level order pickers on the ground floor. Small warehouse forklifts and scissor lifts are located on the upper floor. The other premises are on Techniekweg and Archimedesstraat, named A-hall and C-hall respectively. The three showrooms are located about 250m (273yd) from each other, giving Lisman a total of 22,000sqm (236,806sqft) of covered storage area.

"All trucks in these showrooms can be inspected by customers and demonstrated by our test engineers. When the customer can fulfil his payment on the spot, he can literally drive his forklift out," Lisman says.

He adds that the European forklift market is saturated after strong growth triggered by the EU's expansion. The company is targeting non-EU countries for its growth plans.

"As part of our innovative strategies, [our] innovative marketing campaigns [will] result in developing customer bases in five new countries every year."

A new website is in the pipeline to meet changing customer patterns. "Customers want to find more personalised information on the Lisman website and this tailor-made solution will be possible in the new version."

Many customers tend to buy their used machines exclusively from Lisman because of its vast, high-quality range and the fact that it doesn't compete with them by targeting end-users directly, he explains.

Lisman also plans to improve its customer care and boost cost optimisation of the Lisman assembly line where the machines are prepared for re-sale.

"Our strategy remains unchanged - a clear focus on quality, diversity and long-term relationships with our business partners," Lisman says.