Chris Wetle

Hyster dealer Papé Material Handling Inc of Eugene has been named to represent the Yale brand in portions of the US North West, effective from 18 February.

"We acquired assets including parts and equipment but no employees" or facilities, says Chris Wetle, Papé Material Handling president. No terms were disclosed.

"We plan to add Yale specialists" in existing Papé branches serving the new Yale territories, Wetle says.

"Papé has been appointed the Yale dealer in eastern and central Washington, the north west corner of Oregon, northern Idaho and the state of Montana," says Colin Wilson, vice president and chief operating officer for Nacco Material Handling Group Inc (NMHG) in Greenville, North Carolina. NMHG controls the Yale and Hyster brands and, since mid-2009, has moved to strengthen its brand representation and market presence, in some cases altering a long-standing single-brand practice and allowing a dealership to sell both brands.

H&E Equipment Services Inc of Baton Rouge, Louisiana previously represented the Yale territories now with Papé and, in August, yielded a larger portion of its Yale presence to the materials handling division of Salt Lake City, Utah-based Arnold Machinery Co (Forkliftaction.com News #420).

"Arnold picked up a majority of H&E in their Hyster territory, and we got what was in our Hyster territory," Wetle reports.

In Papé's new Yale territories, "the areas are sparse, and the total forklift market for all brands is about 600 machines per year," Wetle notes.

The change involves some service-type national accounts with Papé incorporating the Yale operations with other brands under separate sales organizations at existing Papé locations. Papé Material Handling has nine facilities in California, eight in Washington State, three in Oregon and one each in Montana, Nevada and Alaska.

Papé Material Handling in certain markets represents the Bobcat, Genie, Ingersoll-Rand, Ditch Witch, Mariotti and Combilift lines in addition to Hyster and Yale. Other than new equipment sales, the operation includes Papé Rents with rental equipment and Papé Engineered Products with rack and shelving systems.

Papé Material Handling continues to compete against other Yale dealers including certain territories of Arnold and Pacific Material Handling Solutions Inc of Hayward, California, formerly Yale-Pacific Inc.

Papé Material Handling is a division of Eugene-based Pape Group Inc, which has more than 1,500 employees and, collectively, serves the construction, forestry, agriculture, warehousing, business aviation and trucking industries in addition to materials handling. More than 700 of those staff work in operations of the Papé Material Handling unit.