Page 34 - Port of Baltimore - Issue 1 - 2023

PORT BUSINESS
Baltimore branch has supported the Family Crisis Center of Baltimore County.
Whatever the details of the formula, the results are undeniable: since 2010, Eastern Lift Truck Co. has nearly tripled in size and now employs nearly 1,200 people at 23 brick-and-mortar locations through the Mid-Atlantic region.
“We proudly celebrated our 50th anniversary in business in 2021 and recorded our single best sales month in 2022,” Edmonds said. “We like to keep raising the bar for ourselves and our customers.”
A Move
into Baltimore
After signing on with Yale in 1996, Eastern Lift Truck Co. embarked on a course of expansion that still continues to this day. In 2010, the company acquired a dealer in Pennsylvania, adding several hundred employees
to its roster. Then, in 2015, Eastern Lift Truck Co. partnered with another major materials handling brand: Hyster
Company, manufacturer of the widest range of forklifts in the industry. In early 2020, Eastern Lift Truck Co. made another major move and acquired Maryland’s longtime Hyster dealer, kept their employees on staff and moved into that dealer’s office. The move vastly expanded the size of Eastern Lift Truck Co.’s already large Baltimore operation.
“Prior to this, we were doing some business with the Port of Baltimore but not on the same scale as we do today,” Williams said. Both Edmonds and Williams note that Eastern Lift Truck Co. made these large moves in the wake of tragic loss: Mike Pruitt, the late President of the company and a son of the original founder, passed away suddenly in 2016. “Mike was like the greatest coach you’d ever met,” Edmonds said. “We’d all run through a brick wall for the guy.” But, while Mike Pruitt’s passing was a shock, Williams said, Mike’s brother Dan “jumped
in and ran with things in a way we never could have imagined.” Under Dan Pruitt’s leadership, the company
has experienced its largest growth, including the amicable acquisition of the Baltimore Hyster dealer.
“Even during a global pandemic, we’ve been very successful,” Williams said. “We didn’t have to lay anybody off or cut anybody’s hours to less than 40. We actually grew during that time.”
That growth has included not just people and locations, but also new brands and service lines. In recent years, Eastern Lift Truck Co. became the first North American dealer for MAFI, a German manufacturer of terminal tractors and heavy-duty trailers. The company also expanded to represent Rail King mobile railcar movers, Polaris and Cushman utility vehicles and GEM low-speed electric vehicles. “We’ll always be a forklift dealer first and foremost, but these moves have opened up exciting new markets for us, and introduced us to great new customers,” Edmonds said.
An Advocate and a Resource
These days, in Baltimore, Eastern Lift Truck Co. does extensive business “both inside and outside the walls of the Port,” Williams said. The company supplies equipment and service to major Tradepoint tenants like Amazon, Floor & Décor, McCormick and Home Depot, and also has “a great relationship with Ports America Chesapeake.”
While union rules limit the amount of support Eastern Lift Truck Co. is able to provide for its products at the
From left to right: Eastern Lift Truck Co. employees Tom Long, Nick Nicolini, Joe Karasek and Steve Heffner, with a customer.
[32] The Port of Baltimore ■ ISSUE 1 / 2023