Alta Equipment Co has acquired a majority of assets of United Lift LP from the Gorman family and is establishing another metropolitan Chicago location for the Hyster brand, probably in Itasca, Illinois.
Nacco Material Handling Group Inc (NMHG) appointed Alta on 1 January as the Hyster dealer in the Chicago area, western Michigan and northern Indiana markets. In December, Wixom-based Alta acquired Aurora Lift-Truck Service Inc in Montgomery, Illinois as its first Chicago-area location
(Forkliftaction.com News #444). Alta represents NMHG's Yale brand in multiple Michigan locations.
Referring to the United Lift deal, Ryan Greenawalt, Alta vice president of business development, says: "This was the next step for our Chicago market strategy. We are going to raise the bar in terms of service expectations for the Chicago market." Alta employs 35 service technicians in the Chicago market and nearly 200 for all of its locations.
NMHG is moving toward selective geographic dealership consolidations in North America for its Hyster and Yale brands, but the Alta expansion appears to relate more to opportunities in a down market than to dealership or brand consolidation. Yale dealers in the Chicago area are YES Lifts LLC, Voss Equipment Inc and Fitzgerald Equipment Co Inc.
Jack Gorman, 71, his wife Nancy and their three children sold the United Lift assets except for buildings and real estate in Bellwood and Lansing, Illinois, and certain rental fleet units.
Gorman and his wife started United Lift Truck Inc as an independent forklift service, rental and used-sales company in 1963, initially working in a garage and subsequently at locations in the Chicago suburbs of Stone Park and later Melrose Park.
The business acquired the Hyster dealership and the sites in Bellwood and Lansing in May 1990 and adopted its current limited-partnership name. In addition to the Hyster brand, United Lift has represented the lines of Royal Tractor Co Inc of New Century, Kansas; V. Mariotti of Torino, Italy; and Mobile Industries Inc of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Gorman says he believes the forklift market has become extremely competitive because of the reduction in the number of units that consumers purchased in the last year. Every brand is fighting for marketshare and trying to maintain core customers, he notes.
"In the last 47 years in business, I have not seen a downturn that has happened so quickly and that has gone so deep as this one," Gorman says.
The founders' son Trent Gorman ran United Lift operations as president in recent years, and their daughter Dana Czarnecki worked in the administrative side of the business.
Trent Gorman has joined Alta Equipment in a management capacity.
Jack Gorman is in the process of winding down the United Lift business and has discontinued the Royal, Mariotti and Mobile representations. He intends to complete the sales of fleet vehicles and either sell or rent the two physical sites.