James J Radous III

UniCarriers Americas Corp is targeting Brazil and other South American countries without taking its eye off the important US forklift market.

"We are making a lot of strides in Latin America," says James J Radous III, executive vice president of sales for Marengo-based UniCarriers Americas.

"The Brazil market is challenging," Radous observes. He points to the difficulties of doing business in a country with high inflation and interest rates. The Brazilian economy is experiencing a downturn and simultaneously faces daunting obligations to prepare for the 12 June-13 July World Cup competition and the 2016 Olympic games.

Certain other Latin American markets in Chile, Mexico, Peru and Colombia "are doing relatively well", he notes. Recently, UniCarriers added direct sales people in Colombia, Chile and Mexico.

"The vast majority of our business is in North America, but as we grow North America, we have our sights set on those emerging markets in South America," Radous says.

Manufacturing proximity is important. "If you are not producing there, you are at a disadvantage," he says. "We want to grow to a critical mass to establish a warehouse and eventually manufacture in Brazil."

In mid-2013, UniCarriers hired Newton Santos to oversee its sales effort in Brazil and develop the dealer network. Santos has previous experience in the Brazil market with a forklift parts distributor and an original equipment manufacturer.

"I am a big believer of having in-country representation," Radous says.

That thought led to the 1 January establishment of a new operating entity, UniCarriers South America, based in Campinas, north-west of São Paulo, Brazil.

Along those lines, "we also have UniCarriers Mexico, and we may set up UniCarriers Canada", Radous notes.

UniCarriers in Brazil has three dealer locations historically representing the TCM brand.

Nissan Motor Co with the Nissan Forklift line and Hitachi Construction Machinery Co with the TCM brand merged their forklift businesses on 1 April 2013 and began establishing the UniCarriers brand.

The transition to the UniCarriers' identity continues to evolve, Radous says. "The brand conversion program is in place, and we are assisting dealers as they convert."

UniCarriers is working with its dealers, conducting evaluations and aiming to establish "the best dealer network" by building together, he reports.

UniCarriers Americas, a wholly owned subsidiary of UniCarriers Corp of Tokyo, designs, manufactures and supports materials handling equipment lines for the Nissan Forklift, TCM, Atlet, Barrett and UniCarriers brands and distributes through 235 dealerships with more than 350 locations.


Activity in Brazil

Among UniCarriers' competitors in Brazil, other forklift brands such as KION, Hyster-Yale, Toyota and Paletrans have or will have manufacturing capabilities there.

During 2013, the KION South America Fabricacao de Equipamentos Para Armazenagem Ltda unit of KION Group AG opened an integrated plant in Indaiatuba in the state of São Paulo to manufacture electrical and internal combustion engine forklifts for sale under its Linde and Still brands.

Nacco Materials Handling Group Brasil Ltda, a subsidiary of Hyster-Yale Materials Handling Inc, is building a plant in Campinas and selling an existing São Paulo city manufacturing site that assembles forklifts, sells parts and provides marketing operations for the Latin American market. Hyster-Yale plans 2014 capital expenditures of USD61.6 million, partially for the new Brazil facility.

Toyota Industries Corp (TICO) began construction of a forklift manufacturing plant in São Paulo in June 2012 and projects a start of operations this year. The new facility will become the manufacturing division of an existing TICO sales company, Toyota Material Handling Mercosur Industria e Comercio de Equipamentos Ltda.

Materials handling equipment maker Paletrans Equipamentos Ltda is based in Cravinhos in the state of São Paulo.