Charlie Haywood is moving toward retirement and the sale of the business assets of his Hyster New England Inc to Yale dealership Northland Industrial Truck Co Inc (NITCO).

Principals anticipate completing the transaction during December or January.

Haywood leaves the materials handling industry after four decades and believes it "will be business as usual" for Hyster New England customers under the new ownership, headed by NITCO President Steve O'Leary.

"Many of the Hyster New England staff will be joining the NITCO team to ensure the relationships that have been longstanding," Haywood, president and owner, says in a mid-December letter to customers.

Nacco Materials Handling Group Inc (NMHG) is moving toward selective geographic dealership consolidations in North America for its Hyster and Yale brands (Forkliftaction.com News #423).

Hyster New England is based in North Billerica and has other locations in Berlin, Connecticut; Scarborough, Maine; and Concord, New Hampshire. In addition to its exclusive Hyster line in most of the region, the dealership markets straight-mast rough-terrain and truck-mounted forklifts from Manitex Liftking ULC.

"Being in the materials handling industry for 40 years as a Hyster dealer has been a satisfying and rewarding life's work," Haywood reports. "The relationship with our employees, customers and suppliers has been an outstanding part of the experience."

The business began in 1969. Yankee Industrial Truck Corp was founded in northern New England. Expansion into the regional dealership of Hyster New England took place in 1997 when Haywood's team purchased Lewis/Boyle Inc.

"And now we are excited to help facilitate the formation of one of the early dual-brand Hyster/Yale dealerships" under NITCO ownership, Haywood notes.

The western counties of Vermont and Berkshire County in Massachusetts are outside the territory of Hyster New England.

Haywood has been involved with the Hyster Big East Group, a benchmarking and networking group of the mid-Atlantic and New England Hyster dealers facilitated by Currie Management Consultants Inc of Worcester, Massachusetts.

In better economic times, Hyster New England had five facilities, more than 265 employees, USD50 million in annual sales and more than 650 short-term rental units. Current figures were unavailable.

"Combining the talent of these two great teams under the concentrated direction of a single solutions provider will enhance the value to all our customers," O'Leary says. "All the stakeholders involved in this proposition, our combined employee team, customers and vendor partners will truly benefit."

The combined organisation will operate under the NITCO Materials Handling Solutions brand, according to O'Leary. Going forward, NITCO intends to have six full-service facilities including two additions to its sites in Wilmington, Shrewsbury and Stoughton, Massachusetts and Lewiston, Maine. It was not disclosed where the two additional NITCO facilities will be located.

Wilmington-based NITCO, established in 1969, is the exclusive Yale forklift dealer for central and eastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. In addition to Yale products, NITCO deals with the Sellick, Atlet, Bendi, Combilift, Drexel, Taylor, Versa-Lift and V Mariotti forklift brands and the JLG line of aerial work platforms.