Doosan Bobcat purchases Doosan Industrial Vehicles
Compact equipment major to now offer material handling and logistics equipment solutions under it umbrella after acquisition of Doosan group company
Doosan Industrial Vehicles (DIV) is now a part of Doosan Bobcat after the compact equipment giant completed the acquisition of a 100% stake in the Doosan Corporation entity for $661.5m.
DIV offers a wide range of material handling equipment, including forklifts, warehouse equipment and downstream businesses. Formerly known as the DIV Business Group (BG) of the Doosan Corporation, DIV announced on July 1 that it had split from Doosan Corporation and that its board of directors had appointed executive vice president, Taeil Kim, the head of DIV BG since 2020, as the new CEO of DIV.
Founded in 1968, DIV was the first company to produce forklifts in Korea. DIV’s diverse product lines include 1.5-30t engine forklifts, 1-5t electric forklifts and logistics equipment for warehouses. The company said that in line with the growing trend towards digital transformation and the sharing economy, it has been running a ‘downstream’ business that provides total services comprising forklift rental, used equipment sales and vehicle maintenance services since 2018.
“DIV is expanding its business portfolio based on new technologies such as a real-time data collection, utilization and automation system equipped with Lin-Q, a telematics system developed by DIV,” said a statement from the company.
The company added that it is expecting annual sales in 2021 to surpass $882.6m for the first time since the business was founded, as sales volumes surge due to increased demand for DIV products in North America and elsewhere.
Following DIV’s incorporation as one of its subsidiaries, Doosan Bobcat said it anticipates “the creation of synergistic effects driven by deeper cost reduction and stronger dealer networks”, coupled with the expansion of its product portfolio and “enhanced organisational influence”.