The Basu family is broadening its forklift industry involvement in the greater Los Angeles market.

Bogumila Basu, wife of Dr Shankar Basu, acquired most of the assets of Industrial Forklifts LLC, effective from 1 November. Her operation represents the Doosan, Heli and Donkey forklift lines and occupies a facility in Bell Gardens, California.

In an April 2007 transaction, Shankar Basu acquired Toyota-Lift of Los Angeles in Santa Fe Springs, California and serves now as the dealership's owner and chief executive officer. On 15 September 2009, he concluded a 28-year, high-profile corporate career with the Toyota forklift organisation.

Bogumila Basu's separate business represents the three forklift brands under the name Industrial Forklifts of Southern California.

She leases the building in Bell Gardens from owners Robert and Alda Sichting of Downey, California. For decades, the Sichtings operated Industrial Forklifts. Robert Sichting's father, Roy, established the business in 1956, originally as Roy's Lift Truck Services.

In August 2007, the Sichtings sold the business to John Faulkner, who ran it as Industrial Forklifts, representing several forklift brands and, simultaneously, used the site as a warehouse for his 20-state distribution duties for Heli forklifts from Hefei, China-based Anhui Heli Co Ltd.

Faulkner completed the sale to Mrs Basu on 29 October. Terms were not disclosed.

Subsequently, Faulkner moved the Heli distribution inventory to an existing Denver, Colorado warehouse. Faulkner is president of FMH Material Handling Solutions Inc with operations in Denver; El Paso, Texas; and Albuquerque, New Mexico, representing as many as 10 forklift brands. "We want to pursue and concentrate on our core Rocky Mountain region territory," Faulkner says.

Doosan Infracore America Corp of Warrensville Heights, Ohio is in the loop. Doosan has been in communications with both the buyer and the seller of Industrial Forklifts, says Lyndle McCurley, Doosan manager of sales and marketing. Parent firm Doosan Group is based in Seoul, South Korea.

Other Doosan dealers with some overlapping and some exclusive territories in the region include Select Equipment Sales with locations in Buena Park, Santa Ana and Rialto and National Lift Fleet Leasing with sites in Westlake Village and Oxnard.

Select Equipment Sales experienced changes in identity and locations in October. Until adopting its current name, the business operated as Myers Select Material Handling in five locations. Select Equipment Sales closed a Paramount site and a second Santa Ana facility on South Kilson Drive.

Shankar Basu retired as chairman and CEO of Toyota Material Handling USA Inc (TMHU) in 2009. At that time, TMHU had 68 authorised dealers with a total of 168 locations throughout the US.

Basu joined the Toyota organisation in 1981 as national marketing manager and, subsequently, served as assistant general manager with responsibilities successively for marketing-planning-distribution, parts-service and sales-planning operations. In 2001, he was named president and CEO of Irvine, California-based TMHU, an operation of Kariya, Japan-based parent Toyota Industries Corp (Forkliftaction.com News #334).

Basu has served at times on the Material Handling Industry of America's Roundtable of Industry Leaders, the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association's manufacturers board of advisors and the Industrial Truck Association's board of directors and executive committee.