Two decades on it holds 40% market share
ALAN PEAT
IN JUST two decades Toyota Forklift has moved from fledgling to being able to rank itself number one supplier of material handling equipment in southern Africa.
Sales in 1984 - its first year of operation - were 200 forklifts. But in 2004 the company expects to sell
18 000 units, holding a 40% market share for new forklift trucks and offering the largest rental fleet in the region.
Its 700 staff operate five branches in the major SA centres of Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London - and two depots and nine dealers cover Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Northwest Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
“This infrastructure ensures our ability to supply and service our products anywhere in the southern African region,” said Toyota Forklift national sales director, Rob Dutton - founder member along with MD Don Bailiff.
The company has also vastly expanded its equipment range in the last 10 years. It is now not only sole regional distributor of Toyota Industrial Equipment, but also for BT warehousing equipment and Kalmar container handlers and heavy-duty forklifts.
Both Swedish-based companies, BT is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toyota Industrial Equipment, while Kalmar is rated the world’s leading manufacturer of heavy duty forklifts and container handlers.
“Toyota Forklift has been the southern African distributor of BT warehousing equipment since 1993,” Dutton told FTW, “and has become the number one supplier of warehousing equipment in the region.
“We added the high quality Kalmar brand to the group in 1994.”
The company is registered as Saficon Industrial Equipment - which is now a subsidiary of Imperial Holdings, a major company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Economic empowerment is visible in Ukhamba Holdings - with which the Imperial group concluded an empowerment transaction in late 2003.
