Industrial equipment rental, sales and service company A Square Forklift on November 14 held an event to commemorate a new partnership with forklifts, platform trucks, tractors and intralogistics systems provider Still, and also used the occasion to celebrate the company’s move to a new facility in Germiston, Gauteng.

Speaking to Engineering News at the event, A Square Forklift MD Craig Bradford explained that he and his father started A Square in 1998 as a forklift rental business.

In 2006, it became the exclusive distributor for Japanese-brand Nichiyu in South Africa and added further complementary brands over the years.

The company’s growth trajectory saw it acquired by diversified industrial group Bidvest Group in 2022.

Bradford said Bidvest’s decentralised entrepreneurial model allowed A Square Forklift to continue to operate according to the company’s principles.

Moreover, the acquisition enabled A Square Forklift to scale up its business, culminating in the company pursuing a new facility for its operations, in S&J Industrial Estate, Germiston.

Planning for this began in 2023, and was completed last year, with the company officially occupying the premises at the beginning of this year.

This is a 12 000 m² site, with about 9 000 m² under roof. The facility comprises multiple spray booths, inspection pits, component assembly and fabrication areas, dock levellers, parts storage areas, new equipment warehouse, et cetera.

“This still remains one of the best, fit-for-purpose, bespoke forklift facilities in South Africa today,” Bradford acclaimed.

Concurrent to this, the company in 2023 was also seeking an expanded range of products to more holistically service its market, he informed.

Germany-based Still was chosen, and A Square Forklift signed an agreement to be the sole distributor for its products in the Southern African market.

A Square Forklift was searching for a suitable partner to round off its intralogistics offering, while Still was seeking a collaborator to adequately represent and grow its brand in the South African market.

“We were aligned in terms of customer service, cutting edge products and our overall passion for smart materials handling solutions,” Bradford highlighted.

He posited that Still represented another step in A Square Forklift’s goal to become a leader in its field.

Bradford explained that the partnership augmented A Square Forklift’s product lineup.

Still covers the traditional internal combustion and electric counterbalance forklift market, and notably, provides a full range of warehousing trucks, including tow tractors, power pallet trucks, pallet stackers, order pickers, reach trucks and very narrow aisle trucks. Several of these are available in autonomous versions.

“Still has an extremely aggressive and progressive automation programme for the creation of more cost-effective, efficient and safer warehouses,” Bradford highlighted.

Lead acid and lithium-ion batteries are available in Still products, and the company is also advancing hybrid technology and hydrogen fuel cell offerings.

Bradford highlighted that A Square had already garnered considerable interest and orders in the market, even prior to the celebration, as there was a demand for these types of products.

The machines are imported from Germany, with small local content in the tyres, attachments, et cetera.