The Mheda Journal

On this last day of 2009, let me say a quick thank you to all who have contributed material and/or left feedback for this space. I appreciate it.

2009 was a busy year in material handling, despite the economic slowdown that greatly impacted the industry. A somewhat bleak outlook from many at the start of the year had many material handlers playing it safe, and trying to Powerfully Position themselves to survive the downturn.

One way many companies found was to learn and master new technologies and new marketing platforms. These companies decided that Braving the Digital World with Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, e-commerce sites, wikiMHEDA, software solutions and more was a path to success.

The year wasn’t all bad, as many distributors and manufacturers strengthened their partnerships with each other and wrote their own Sales Success Stories.

Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” Many MHEDA members will attest that 2009 was one of those years. 2009, and the ’00s decade for that matter, is over (and many people are not shedding any tears about that, I’m sure).

Have a Happy New Year holiday and celebrate responsibly. See you in 2010!

Good news for all you fans of The MHEDA Journal out there: the next issue is at the printer and will be mailed out in mid-January! This issue is our Annual Industry Forecast issue, and we went straight to the source again this year: We talked to more than 50 distributors and 70 suppliers to find out how the industry is really going to take shape in 2010. We also have viewpoints from the presidents of the Industrial Truck Association and the Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association, and a forecast from the Material Handling Industry of America.

Complete with quotes, charts, graphs, and more, this year’s forecast is definitely worth a read. Uncertainty in the economy is starting to clear up a bit, so MHEDA members are renewed with optimism for 2010. About 68% of distributors forecast a sales increase next year.

Keep reading in this space up until the publish date (January 15) for more specific details.

Earlier this month, Northland Industrial Truck Company (NITCO) of Wilmington, MA, agreed to purchase North Billerica, MA-based Hyster New England. According to the press release on NITCO’s Web site, Hyster New England president Charlie Haywood is stepping down after 40 successful years in the material handling industry.

According to the release, “The combined organization will move forward under the ‘NITCO Materials Handling Solutions’ brand and will add two new full service facilities bringing its total facility count to six throughout the New England area.”

Though the announcement doesn’t explicitly say so, the combination of NITCO, a Yale dealer, with the Hyster dealer in its territory would appear to be another instance of NACCO Materials Handling Group, the owner of both Yale and Hyster, strategy to allow distributors to carry both lines for the first time.  To my knowledge, Arnold Machinery Company (Salt Lake City, UT) is so far the only dealer to take advantage of this arrangement.

It will be interesting to see how this continues to play out.

A colleague of mine forwarded me this interesting story yesterday. Apparently, AmbaFlex, a manufacturer of conveyors and conveyor components, won a lawsuit in a Shanghai court to stop a Chinese company from producing copycat conveyor equipment. The lawsuit has been pending for more than a year, and the judgment was handed down on December 2. According to the AmbaFlex Web site:

By Judgment of 2 December 2009, the Shanghai Civil People’s Court of China ordered local Cabax to stop manufacturing the infringing Spiral Conveyor and to pay damage compensation.

The perception that one cannot put a hold on copies of Western equipment by local Chinese manufacturers has been proven to be untrue. Over the last years and supported by the WTO membership of China, the Chinese law became more open for foreign companies to successfully file their complaints relating to patent infringements.

Congrats to AmbaFlex on protecting its patent. This is a practical example of what’s been said in the industry for a long time: competition is everywhere, and they’ll try everything to survive! Especially in this down economy. It will be interesting to see how this plays out going foward.

Last year at this time, MHEDA distributors were in much the same boat as they are now. They wanted to be optimistic about where business would be next year, but they were hesitant. That’s much the same this year. In our annual Industry Forecast that will be mailed out in print on January 15, 68% of MHEDA member distributors interviewed anticipate a sales increase in 2010. Reasons ranged from product diversity to increased marketing to “It can’t get much worse.”

That’s slightly more than double last year’s rate, when MHEDA members were bracing for the downturn and only 32% were anticipating increases.

For more information on the 2010 forecast, read The MHEDA Journal Online on January 15.

Remember those days when getting Legos for Christmas was about the most exciting thing in the world? Well, for some elementary school students in Minnesota, legos under the tree this year would be even more of a bonus. You see, these students are participating in the Lego robotics competition, trying to design a robotic forklift made of legos to meet the competition’s parameters.

Read the article in the Stillwater Gazette for an article and video with more deatils.

The latest issue of The MHEDA Connection, MHEDA’s semi-monthly newsletter, is due out in e-mail inboxes tomorrow, December 15. Topping this issue’s in-depth breaking news is an item out of Jonesboro, AR, and Hytrol Conveyor Company. Industry stalwart Bill Hawthorne, Hytrol’s VP of sales, is retiring at the end of the year. He will stay on as a consultant through 2010.

I want to give Bill special mention in this space because he was one of the first people I ever met in the material handling industry. Shortly after I joined the MHEDA team in 2003, I attended NA2004 in Cleveland. It was there that I met Bill and other Hytrol employees. We had a long discussion about the industry, and he always remembered me after that. I’m sure he meets a lot of people every day, so for a virtual rookie in the industry to receive that kind of attention was definitely appreciated. Thanks, Bill, for being a great resource over the years. Best of luck in your retirement. 

See my colleague’s blog or read the December 15 issue of The MHEDA Connection for more details. (If you’re not receiving it and would like to, let me know and we’ll add you to the list.)

A press release from The Raymond Corporation says that Raymond lift trucks will be featured in episodes of a new Discovery Channel series, “Motor City Motors.” The show features two brothers in Detroit who custom-engineer vehicles, and the forklifts are used to help maneuver parts and components for assembly.

MHEDA member distributor Andersen & Associates (Wixom, MI) provided the show with five trucks, including one walkie reach truck, two walkie pallet trucks and two hand pallet trucks. “We are pleased that our lift trucks can play a part in a series designed to spotlight manufacturing ingenuity,” Andersen & Associates Principal Thomas Campau Jr. says in the release.

“Motor City Motors” is scheduled to premiere on December 28, 2009, on the Discovery Channel.

I’ve mentioned it before, but after attending David Nour’s very informative Twitter webinar today that MHEDA co-sponsored, just wanted to send a quick reminder out to readers that The MHEDA Journal can be found on social networks Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn. Brand new links to all these sites are now available in the left-hand column of the magazine homepage at www.themhedajournal.org.

Follow us on Twitter: @liftmoveandstor

Become a fan of the magazine on Facebook.

Become my contact on LinkedIn by visiting this page.

Go to our YouTube page to see material handling videos.

I look forward to hearing from you and interacting with you on these social networks. If you’re not out there yet, what are you waiting for?

The Fourth Quarter issue of The MHEDA Journal Online was posted on October 15, and the next issue isn’t due until January 15. But we came across some information that we thought was so valuable we posted it today!

Human resources expert Diane Lustenader sent us updated figures for Social Security and Medicare for 2010. These amounts go into effect at the end of the year, so I didn’t want to wait until January to get the word out!

We’re going to be adding articles more frequently in 2010, so don’t forget to check the Web site. I urge you not to just throw the print magazine on a desk and replace it 3 months later. We have lots of content…we’ll be providing it more frequently in the future!

For now, check out this article on Social Security before this year’s figures are outdated. To find it on the home page, look for the “Just In” graphic in the left-hand column.