ALLIED Forklifts’ acquisition of rival business FTA Forklift Hire last month has provided a boost to the privately owned operator’s profile, as well as growing its truck fleet.
ALLIED Forklifts’ acquisition of rival business FTA Forklift Hire last month has provided a boost to the privately owned operator’s profile, as well as growing its truck fleet.
The deal is particularly significant for Allied principal Wayne Adams, who broke away from FTA more than 14 years ago in order to grow his own business. Allied is now counted among the top three privately owned forklift companies in Western Australia, alongside LiftRite and Budget Forklifts.
Mr Adams’ primary focus when developing Allied was on building a high-quality and, more importantly, new client base.
He says advertising has been the principal means to attract the targeted client base, and also one of the main reasons for the company’s success.
“I taught myself the trick of how to advertise,” Mr Adams says.
“To start the business off it was mainly advertising in the weekend papers that worked for us.
“The main form of advertising we use now is the web, but we’re pretty broad – we do Win TV and we have one of the top spots in the Yellow Pages.
“We use our website and make use of Google ad words too, and we’ve learned that magazine advertising and radio hasn’t worked for us.”
The forklift industry is complex and lacks clear demarcation; it overlaps and interacts with a whole host of other industries that depend on forklift rental and servicing. Wayne Adams’ business ethos, on the other hand, is starkly simple – give your customers a service you would expect and follow through with it.
“If someone wants something, we do everything we possibly can to get it for them without putting up barriers,” he says.
“If they need a forklift or materials handling equipment, the philosophy is we’ll go find it; we’ll buy interstate if necessary or go overseas.”
While Allied might have consolidated its position among the top WA-based players in the sector, there are plenty of major competitors, either owned internationally or with their head offices in the eastern states.
Allied takes a more WA- and customer-oriented approach, according to Mr Adams.
Part of the customer-service side of this equation is management’s capacity to make timely, appropriate decisions, and to find solutions immediately.
Under the deal with FTA, Allied has secured all FTA’s clients, hire contracts, a hire fleet of 80 forklifts, and key staff. While the deal itself means Allied has expanded – it owns 300 machines for hire ranging from 1.5 to 48 tonnes, and 120-150 trucks – certain clients that have re-signed under the Allied name make the deal “invaluable”, according to Mr Adams.
“Taylor-Dunn industrial vehicles is a product range we’re now the exclusive agent for; they’ve been an FTA client for 15 years,” he says.
“The deal gives us a complete range of equipment. As far as material handling equipment goes we’re a one-stop shop – the deal adds to our strength.”
It’s shaping up as a big year for Allied, which from January has taken on a contract to maintain 350 machines on behalf of NTP Forklifts Australia, which it represents in WA.
