 Members of the Ramon Chavez Sr family own and operate three locations of Permian Machinery Movers Inc in Texas |
A Chavez family-owned and -operated distributor of forklifts and materials handling equipment is ramping up a third location in Texas to diversify its economic base.
Permian Machinery Movers Inc (PMMI) is tackling its largest urban market in establishing a site in San Antonio.
Family patriarch Ramon Chavez Sr entered the forklift industry in 1977 and, with a son, Robert, established the family business in 1981 in Odessa focusing on used forklifts for the oil-patch industry in west Texas and south eastern New Mexico. Now, another two sons, Robert and Raul Chavez, operate the 9,600 square foot (864sqm) Odessa site.
Son Roy Chavez set up an El Paso, Texas operation in 1987 and now, with brother Ricky Chavez, runs the 10,000 square foot (900sqm) location. From El Paso, PMMI has indirect access to the Mexican market, starting with the large nearby Ciudad Juárez metropolitan area.
Ramon Chavez Jr launched the 13,000 square foot (1,170sqm) San Antonio site in late 2007 and operates the location with his son, Frankie Ray Chavez, 27, as his "right-hand" man.
The founder's daughter, Rosemary Chavez, is the PMMI corporate secretary.
The family has recognised the importance of diversifying. "We know the (oil) boom will come and that energy (prices) will go up and down," says Ramon Chavez Jr. Setting up a third store may help to stabilise the business so it is not dependent on oil or the cross-border business.
PMMI, which employs a total of 55 staff, has enlarged its inventory, improved efficiency and obtained the third location to display equipment.
After 16 years in business, PMMI has also changed its practice of focusing exclusively on used forklifts.
PMMI obtains original equipment from TCM Manufacturing USA Inc in Columbia, South Carolina and its parent firm TCM Corp of Tokyo, Japan; and Tusk Lift Trucks of Covington, Georgia, a division of Komatsu Forklift USA Inc. The TCM relationship began in 1997, and the Tusk link, which started in 2006, extends now to the Odessa and El Paso locations. The San Antonio site is working on an agreement to distribute Tusk forklifts.
PMMI provides rigging, maintenance and repair services and can customize a forklift to meet a customer's particular specifications.
At the start in 1981, Robert Chavez gave an identity to the partnership, naming it for the region's widespread sedimentary Permian basin, which has thick rock deposits from the ancient Permian geological period. A loan of USD100,000 provided early capital.
The partnership was incorporated in 1991 when "the family got serious" about the business and "decided to do it for a living," Ramon Chavez Jr informs
Forkliftaction.com News. "God has blessed us. We never had anything."
Ramon Chavez Sr, now 74, retired in 2004 and enjoys deer hunting and tending to his orchard.