Pon North America’s Equipment Depot Dealership Group Acquires Another Material Handling Company in Texas

Equipment Depot of Texas, headquartered in Waco, Texas, announced today that it has acquired Equipment Services Inc., a privately held forklift dealership in the Longview, Texas.
“Even though market conditions are tough we are continuing to execute our long-term growth strategy in North America,” says Don Moes, president of Pon North America, the parent company of the Equipment Depot dealership group in the United States. “Adding a dealership with a solid base in northeast Texas is another step in our plan to build a national brand. We expect to acquire additional material handling or rental companies this year.”
Equipment Depot is a dealership group of five regional equipment companies that operate under one common name to sell, service, rent and provide parts and training for the leading brands of forklifts, aerial lifts and construction equipment. It operates from more than 40 sales and service locations in 12 states throughout North America and was ranked one of the top 25 largest rental companies in the United States last year based on sales and fleet size. Its regional companies are based in Texas, Illinois, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“This acquisition extends our reach in the northeast Texas market and completes an acquisition plan in Texas that began in 2002,” says Kelly Kunka, CEO and president of Equipment Depot of Texas. “Adding the Longview forklift facility to our existing operation allows us to expand our construction equipment rental operations into northeast Texas markets as well.”
As a result of the acquisition of Equipment Services Inc. operations in Longview, Equipment Depot of Texas’ combined operations has more than 600 employees, including 300 service technicians, operating out of 14 facilities strategically located throughout Texas. With sales and service coverage in 170 counties and annual revenues exceeding $190 million, Equipment Depot of Texas becomes one of the largest materials handling companies in Texas.
“We will now have the opportunity to serve our customers throughout Texas who have branch locations in Longview, Tyler, Lufkin or Texarkana or whose home base is in those markets – especially construction rental companies,” Kunka said. “Equipment Depot of Texas has been the authorized dealer for SkyTrak in many of the counties served by Equipment Services Inc. but we have not had a facility to sell, rent or provide service for telehandlers in the northeast Texas region.”

Equipment Services Inc. has operated at the same location in Longview since April of 1973. It was originally a branch PowrLift of Dallas, Texas, but became privately held as ClarkLift of East Texas in 1972. At one time Equipment Services Inc. had branches in Tyler and Lufkin, Texas, as well.

“Equipment Services Inc. has experienced managers and skilled employees who have a long history of taking care of their customers,” Kunka says. “We will now have more than 10,000 forklifts under routine service contracts and more than 1,300 forklifts in our short-term rental fleets and 2,300 aerial lifts in our.modern construction fleet.”
Equipment Depot of Texas is a Waco-based regional equipment company with equipment superstores in Austin, Beaumont, Brazosport, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, Laredo, McAllen, San Antonio and Sherman as well as superservice depots in Abilene, Brownwood, Brownsville, Bryan-College Station, Corsicana, Del Rio, Denton, Galveston, Killeen, Paris, San Angelo, Temple and Victoria, Texas, as well as Lake Charles, Louisiana. It also sells products through its website at http://www.eqdepot.com/.
It was founded as Central Texas Clarklift in 1975. Equipment Depot is a dealer for Caterpillar, Clark, CombiLift, Doosan, Drexel, Hoist, Linde, Mitsubishi and Nissan forklifts as well as Mobile pallet jacks. It also sells, services and rents aerial lifts built by SkyTrak, Genie and JLG, as well as light construction equipment manufactured by New Holland. It has more than 3,500 late model units in its industrial and construction rental fleet.
Equipment Depot also owns New Holland tractor equipment dealerships in Waco and Austin, Texas, that sell and service a complete line of New Holland agricultural and turf equipment as well as agricultural and turf attachments made by Woods, Gannon, Gill, BushHog and BellTec.