 One of Stärke's imports |
Stärke Material Handling Group's addition of big trucks to its lineup underscores the firm's determination to make inroads in North America with Asian-built forklifts.
The Stärke range includes more than 70 models of various sizes and configurations and some that general manager Jim Chesla describes as "diamonds in the rough".
The latest entries are in the EcoMaxx Series with "big truck" capacities of 8,000-22,000 lb. (3,600-9,900 kg). The line includes seven diesel models and three using liquefied petroleum gas or petrol.
Engines complying with interim Tier IV and current Tier III standards are available. Engine suppliers include General Motors, Nissan, Perkins, Cummins and Yanmar.
Stärke has a reach stacker and an order picker moving through development and testing phases, with both likely to be ready for market entry in 2014.
In past years, Chesla's organisation represented lines of Asian materials handling equipment from Anhui Heli Co Ltd, Master Craft Industrial Equipment, E-P Equipment Co Ltd and Mo Doo Industry Co Ltd.
"We parted ways" with those brands as Stärke embarked on a new business model, Chesla says.
"Marketing several brands is very difficult to do," Chesla notes, "so we developed the Stärke name and chose to work with the best of the best [forklift manufacturers] from Asia."
He declines to provide names of the contract suppliers, but says, "we have manufacturing arrangements with five core groups" - four in China and one in Taiwan.
"Going to separate factories makes sense," he says. One factory handles Class 1 units, two factories deal with Class 3 trucks and two other factories concentrate on Class 4 and 5 equipment.
The Stärke group receives shipments of new units through Port Metro Vancouver in British Columbia and stores its forklift inventory in a warehouse in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
Stärke has 22 dealer locations in Canada and five more in stages of review.
In the US, the business has 18 dealer locations and 10 others in the queue.
Several Stärke group affiliates in Canada are working with National Leasing Group Inc in Winnipeg, Manitoba for financing. Those in the US are connecting with a number of companies.
Stärke Material Handling employs 19 staff and is a division of Thorold-based Canadian Forklift Distributors Ltd.
Ensuring that dealers provide technical support to customers is important to Chesla. "We were mechanics before we were ever distributors," he observes.
As for business prospects, "we see light at the end of the tunnel, and we believe we have positioned ourselves well," he says.
Creating the new business "step by step" has resulted in highs and lows, but Chesla says it feels "like a 10-year venture culminating in the Stärke line".