Features

A lasting legacy

From the very beginning, Clark Forklift has been at the forefront of technological developments in the forklift truck industry.
From inventing the world’s first-ever forklift truck in 1917, to being the first company to manufacture over 1 million forklift units worldwide, progression, innovation and quality has always been at the forefront of the organisations values.
Logistics & Materials Handling magazine caught up with David Hammond, Sales and Marketing Manager at Clark International South Pacific about what the slogan ‘built to last’ really means for Clark.
The focus on quality and durability has led to Clark being leaders in safety. “Safety is paramount to everything that we do at Clark, and is never an afterthought,” David says.
This commitment to safety is evident in the recently released S-Series Clark Forklift. This newly launched forklift has been selected by Luna Park in Sydney because of its safety features.
“Luna Park’s commitment to site safety is the key reason why this customer has been an early adopter of the next-generation of forklift safety offered by the Clark S-Series,” David says.
The park’s high level of public traffic coupled with continuous commercial operations means that Luna Park has to be very serious about safety for everyone on their site and the new S-series comes packed with standard safety equipment including speed limiting, automatically applied parking brake, LED lights, rear blue light, back up alarm and increased visibility.
The mantra ‘Built to last’ does not just apply to newly built products, David says that he is often taken aback by how some of the older Clark products are still functioning so well.
“Something that still makes me fall off my seat is when we get customers give us their serial numbers for parts and we realise that they are operating a forklift that was built in the 1960s,” David says.
The long-term heritage is not only evident in Clark Forklifts, but also in the Australian distributor of the product, Clark Equipment. The business is an 100 per cent Australian-owned and established in 1948 as a manufacturing licensee of Clark Equipment Company of the United States. David’s father and grandfather both previously held the role of Sales and Marketing Manager for the Forklift division and David’s father is currently the CEO.
“We have multiple generations involved in the company, we are not focussed on short-term goals. We want to be around in generations to come. We have a long-term focus for our products and for our business,” David says.
Over the company’s history, Clark Equipment has launched and established many well-known products and brands such as Clark Forklift, Bobcat loaders and excavators, Doosan heavy construction equipment, Daken farm equipment, McCormick Tractors, Terberg heavy duty terminal tractors and the Omega Heavy Truck range of forklifts, container handlers and reach stackers.
According to David, what really sets Clark Equipment apart is its reputation, quality and technical competency. “The success of our Omega heavy truck range, designed and manufactured by Clark Equipment in Australia, makes us not only a market leader in machinery sales, but one of the only organisations manufacturing heavy trucks here in Australia,” David says.

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