Southern Hospitality: Briggs & LiftOne to Open Doors in Southeast US as New Hyster® Dealers

Dealers take over for exiting Barloworld

Starting today, Briggs Equipment and LiftOne will open their doors as authorized Hyster® lift truck dealers in Atlanta and Charlotte, respectively. This follows a late January announcement where Barloworld announced that it had executed letters of interest regarding the sale of its US assets to Briggs and LiftOne pending a due diligence process.

The additions make both Briggs and LiftOne two of the largest Hyster dealers in the United States, both responsible for the majority of the southeastern United States. Briggs’ territory to sell and service Hyster® brand lift trucks includes Florida, Arkansas and Atlanta, and portions of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. LiftOne will be responsible for portions of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

“Briggs is excited to expand both its footprint and product offering in the United States with the addition of the Hyster brand,” said Mike Winemiller, President of Briggs International. “The growth of our materials handing business brings more opportunities to our employees and better service to our customers. This acquisition provides our customers with more product options and quicker response times.”

“With the change to Hyster products, LiftOne’s focus on being our customers’ ‘trusted partner’ for their parts and service solutions remains unchanged,” said Edward Weisiger, Jr., CEO of Carolina Tractor, the parent company of LiftOne. “Our award winning service staff of more than 350 highly-trained technicians will be able to service all brands of material handling equipment for our customers. LiftOne will continue to provide our customers with equipment solutions to help them increase efficiency and support their operations. We are committed to exceeding customer expectations for quality, dependability and responsiveness.”

“We are confident Hyster products, combined with Briggs’ and LiftOne’s sales and service support, will deliver excellent customer satisfaction,” said Jonathan Dawley, President of Hyster Distribution.  “We look forward to maintaining our long relationship with current Hyster customers, as well as developing a solid relationship with new customers.”

About Briggs International, Inc.

Headquartered in Dallas, TX, Briggs International, Inc. and its subsidiaries are leading providers and renters of premium, materials handling equipment, currently with locations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Mexico. In addition to providing Hyster® brand lift truck and fleet management services, Briggs also represents a variety of other materials handling equipment manufacturers.  Offering full-service solutions to customers, Briggs supports its customers with financing, safety training, a market-leading parts inventory and 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week service programs. The company’s 1,000 service technicians are situated in 31 locations.

Briggs International, Inc. is a Sammons Enterprises, Inc. company. Briggs employs approximately 1,700 people.

For more information, visit www.briggsequipment.com.

About LiftOne

Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, LiftOne (liftone.net), a subsidiary of Carolina Tractor, is a full-service material handling dealership with branch locations in North Carolina, South Carolina and now Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. Carolina Tractor has been in the material handling business for over 50 years and is the third longest serving Caterpillar earth moving equipment dealer and it celebrated its 85th year in business in 2011. In addition to offering a full line of material handling equipment, LiftOne is also a Caterpillar dealer in construction, forestry, paving products, and power generation systems, truck engines and LinkBelt cranes. Since 1926, the company has been committed to the needs of its customers by providing superior parts, service, and sales.  LiftOne sells, rents and services a wide range of equipment solutions to fill its customers’ specific needs. LiftOne’s service staff of highly trained technicians can service all brands of material handling equipment for our customers. LiftOne has been awarded the prestigious Five Star Service Excellence Award and its sales staff has earned multiple awards from manufacturing partners over the years.

About Hyster Company

Based in Greenville, N.C., Hyster Company is a leading worldwide lift truck designer and manufacturer. Hyster Company offers 130 models configured for gasoline, LPG, diesel and electric power, with the widest capacity range in the industry — from 2,000 to 115,000 lbs. Supported by one of the industry’s largest and most experienced dealer networks, Hyster Company builds tough, durable lift trucks that deliver high productivity, low total cost of ownership, easy serviceability and advanced ergonomic features; accompanied by outstanding parts, service and training support.

Hyster Company is an operating division of NACCO Materials Handling Group, Inc. (NMHG), which employs approximately 5,300 people worldwide. NMHG is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of NACCO Industries, Inc. (NYSE:NC).

For more information, visit www.hyster.com or contact