Alta Equipment Co will this week stage a marketing thrust at its newly outfitted facility in Itasca. The full-service location is Alta's second Hyster branch in the Chicago metropolitan market, where the brand's representation continues to undergo dramatic changes.

The location in north west suburban Itasca is a step toward Alta Equipment's goal to have five or six Chicago service facilities, according to Art Kasik, corporate chief operating officer.

Alta acquired the 41,700 sqft (3,753 sqm) facility in mid-2010, invested about USD500,000 in major refurbishments and equipment and opened for business in September.

"We were very fortunate to find a building with great visibility and access to the expressway," Kasik says. The facility in Itasca is located near major thoroughfares such as Interstate highway 355 and the Elgin-O'Hare expressway.

"Now that this is finished, we're actively looking for appropriate sites for our next branch," he notes. Kasik did not mention any likely acquisitions or greenfield start-up sites.

Wixom, Michigan-based Alta has moved into the Chicago market briskly.

Alta acquired the Aurora Lift-Truck Service Inc dealership in far west suburban Montgomery in December. Alta dropped Aurora's representation of the Komatsu, Schaeff and Jungheinrich forklift brands.

From 1 January, Nacco Material Handling Group Inc (NMHG) named Alta as its exclusive Hyster dealer in the Chicago and western Michigan markets. That enabled Alta to install the Hyster brand in Montgomery. About 38 miles (61 km) separate the Montgomery and Itasca locations.

Now, Alta employs 25 staff in Montgomery and 36 in Itasca. The branch managers are Brian Rhodes in Montgomery and Trent Gorman in Itasca.

Then, effective 1 February, Alta made an asset purchase of the rental fleet and used forklifts of former Hyster dealership United Lift Truck LP in Bellwood and Lansing, Illinois. As part of the United transition, "we interviewed the associates and hired a group we felt comfortable with", Kasik says.

This week's Invitation-to-Compare competition in Itasca is the 23rd such event that the Hyster forklift organisation has conducted over eight months in 14 US states and two Canadian provinces.

The typical live demonstrations and evaluations pit Hyster equipment against comparable Crown, Toyota and Caterpillar units in the electric-powered class; Crown and Raymond in the warehouse category; and Caterpillar and Toyota in the Hyster-Fortis segment.

In addition to Kasik, other executives expected at the Itasca event include Steven Greenawalt, Alta Equipment chief executive officer; Robert Kohler, president of the company's industrial equipment division; and Craig Brubaker, vice president of the division's operations.

Alta was founded in 1984 and, historically in Michigan, has focused on NMHG's Yale brand, but now NMHG is moving toward selective geographic dealership consolidations in North America for its Hyster and Yale brands.

Through expansion and acquisitions, Alta has grown to 14 full-service locations including six Yale-only sites in Michigan, five dual-brand Yale-Hyster locations in Michigan and three Hyster-only locations in Illinois and Indiana.

Alta is adjusting some western Michigan sites as a result of the 30 December acquisition of certain operations of Mid-State Industries Services Inc of Eaton Rapids, a Hyster dealer since 2005. "We have plans to rehabilitate our Lansing location and ultimately during 2011 consolidate Eaton Rapids operations in Lansing," Kasik says.

Also in western Michigan, Alta has consolidated a Springfield location with a Battle Creek facility.

For all operations, Alta employs 370 staff including 200 service technicians and projects 2010 sales of USD120 million, Kasik indicates. Prior to the expansion, Alta had 2009 sales of USD45 million.

Alta's new Hyster location in Itasca is close to the recently opened Itasca facility of Yale dealer YES Lift LLC, which uses YES Equipment & Services LLC as its marketing name. Hyster and Yale brand manager NMHG of Greenville, North Carolina is a subsidiary of publicly traded Nacco Industries Inc.