Family-owned Crown Industries has become one of America's largest private companies supplying forklifts and other machines to Amazon, Home Depot and Target, among others
hen Amazon needs to move a pallet of Alexa devices from its warehouse shelves to its delivery trucks, workers often grab an RC-series stand-up forklift, made by Crown Equipment. DHL uses Crown software to manage 7,000 of its forklifts and truck components. Walmart Canada brought in Crown’s hydrogen fuel cell-powered reach trucks when it wanted to go greener. Home Depot, Target and Costco are customers too.
But has Crown crested? Amid ongoing global trade tensions, companies are not as quick to replace their machines. “Things have softened a bit,” Jim Dicke III, Crown’s president, admitted in November. In early January, Crown announced voluntary layoffs at its plant, afterreducing hours and offering unpaid leave around the holidays. Crown isn't alone. Competitors like Hyster-Yale, Toyota Industries and KION Group are all being hit, according to Sitodi senior equity analyst Joe Mondillo.
The business grew quickly, expanding internationally and introducing industry “firsts” like the side-stance reach truck, which was designed for high-rise warehouses. But it wasn’t until 1970 that Jim I had his big break: The Levitz Furniture chain chose Crown as its nationwide supplier of lift trucks. “All of a sudden we had credibility in the industry,” says Jim II.
“When you look at a company like Amazon, it's also a test of whether we're doing our job,” says Jim III, who took over as president in 2002. “If somebody out there that we have respect for is going through a disciplined decision-making process and settles on us, then we're doing our job. If they settle on someone else, then we need to learn something about why that happened.”of nearly all Crown’s parts. That means forgoing outsourcing and keeping most of its production in-house.
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