Nissan Motor Co wants to spin off its industrial machinery division to boost its autonomy and create a flexible management structure so that it can achieve sustainable growth.

Company spokesman Mitsuru Yonekawa tells Forkliftaction.com News that a feasibility study was commenced at the end of 2009 for the spin-off and more details would be available at a later stage.

Yonekawa declines to elaborate on how the division's employees will be impacted by the spin-off, saying instead that Nissan is studying "possible alternatives for the employees".

The industrial machinery division, which manufactures counterbalance and warehouse forklifts and tow tractors, employs about 2,500 people and has production facilities in Japan, Spain, Sweden and the US.

For financial year 2009, Nissan Motor's total sales were JPY7.5137 trillion (USD81.782 billion). Sales from the industrial machinery division totaled JPY61.3 billion (USD667.2 million) or about 1% of total group sales.