A forklift dealership in York, South Carolina has new ownership and management.

Forklift industry veteran Casey Wieland legally acquired Forklifts Unlimited Inc on 1 January 2012 from founder, owner and operator Jane L Leazer, but he delayed taking control until August. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Leazer, a resident of nearby Rock Hill, South Carolina, started Forklifts Unlimited in 1988 after working for a Yale forklift dealership in the region.

Wieland added "& Services" in rebranding the company to its current identity, Forklifts Unlimited & Services Inc. In addition to owning stock of the corporation, he serves as president and chief executive officer.

The business represents TCM industrial forklift trucks and pallet jacks in an exclusive territory, Master Craft rough-terrain forklifts, Aisle Master very narrow aisle articulated forklifts and Genie aerial lift equipment. "At the beginning of January, we plan to hire a couple of sales people" for the original equipment business, Wieland says.

Forklifts Unlimited & Services has 12 employees, occupies 7,000 sqft (650 sqm) on five acres and, in a highly competitive region for forklift dealers, serves a combined bi-state statistical area including Charlotte, the capital of North Carolina.

"I expect significant growth within three years," Wieland says.

Wieland held positions with dealership Equipment Depot in Texas for more than two decades, initially as a sales representative in 1988. He became general manager for the San Antonio area in 1997 after Equipment Depot's acquisition of three southern Texas branches from another equipment maker. In 2008, he was assigned as southern regional sales manager with responsibilities for sales in the entire south Texas region. Pon Holdings BV of Almere, the Netherlands owns Equipment Depot.

He began in 2010 looking for entrepreneurial opportunities and decided to resign from Equipment Depot after being recalled to active military service for the third time.

Wieland, 50, continues as a chief master sergeant with the US Air Force Reserve. He joined the reserve organisation in 1988 and has experienced three deployments to Iraq as a member of the rapid engineer deployable heavy operation repair squadron engineers (Red Horse) unit. Largely on the assignments, he trains Iraqi forces. From 1983-1988, he served on active military duty with the US Navy.