Caldwell and Zemak

Bill Zemak has acquired ownership of wholesale firm Forklift Pro Inc from founder Buck Caldwell. Terms for the transaction were not disclosed.

While in the process of retiring, Caldwell remains as a Forklift Pro consultant for about a year, primarily on buying and transition issues.

Zemak succeeds Caldwell as owner and president of Forklift Pro in Pineville, south of Charlotte, North Carolina. Zemak says his plans include eventual expansion of Forklift Pro's current product line and reaching out to additional markets.

Forklift Pro has a newly designed website aiming to reach new customers and a web-based inventory management system that allows the sales team to fulfill customer requests quickly and efficiently.

During his time in the industry, Caldwell began selling forklifts for Carolina Tractor in Hickory, North Carolina in 1977 and left that firm to join Yale Carolinas, then a new Yale dealership, as a minority partner.

To enter the wholesale forklift business, Caldwell established Forklift Pro in 2007.

"It was my passion for the lift truck industry that led me to start Forklift Pro," Caldwell says. "After surveying the wholesale forklift market, I realised that dealer and customer needs were just not being met. I knew what had to be done."

Forklift Pro buys forklifts from dealers, leasing companies and end-users, primarily in the Eastern US, but also wherever a buying package exists in the US or Canada.

Forklift Pro advertises on a national and international level. The wholesaler views the entire US as its territory and also sells to customers in Canada, Mexico, Europe and South America. In 2010, at the height of the recession, Forklift Pro hired a South American salesman to develop that region. That decision paid off, because in 2012, the international sales accounted for 10% of Forklift Pro's business.

Zemak established his first successful business while still in high school and sold it for USD45,000 when he was 18 years old. Moving from East Brunswick, New Jersey to Plano, Texas, he managed a successful pool construction company while attending college full-time and envisioning a future in motocross racing. A motocross accident, however, led Zemak to move to Charlotte from Texas.

In 2012, Zemak sold his previous business, Overstream Poolscapes Inc., a firm he started in 1995 with an initial investment of USD1,600 and grew to be one of the Charlotte market's premier outdoor living construction companies.

Forklift Pro has 19 employees and stocks forklifts, attachments, forks, side shifters, carpet poles and battery chargers.

As of 4 March, the website lists 297 forklifts in the Forklift Pro inventory of used equipment. Forklift Pro technicians clean, inspect and, as needed, refurbish equipment.