Arrow Material Handling Products

1-800-821-7563

International Toll Free - 1-877-821-7575
Email AMH - sales@amhattachments.com

Kansas City based manufacturing company survives and thrives by adapting to change and capitalizing on core competencies.

The company began in 1969 on Kansas City's east side. Two partners decided to start a company specializing in wrecking out old forklifts and selling the parts. They found success so they expanded to manufacturing and remanufacturing components and assemblies, using cores from the wrecked forklifts. This new venture was also successful, and created the need to buy new parts in volume to continue remanufacturing at competitive prices. But the company, then known as Arrow Forklift Parts Manufacturing Corporation, was not an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and suppliers were reluctant to give them the same discounts as they did OEM's.

Company owners Leo Hallak and George Owens overcame this obstacle by acquiring Economobile Manufacturing Company, a small forklift OEM, thereby giving Arrow the purchasing power it needed to continue to grow. While the Arrow / Economobile never again built a complete forklift, Arrow manufactured and remanufactured components and attachments such as engines, clutch assemblies, torque converters, transmissions, hydraulic pumps, starters, side shifters, and carriages under the Economobile trade name. This new purchasing power also led to Arrow stocking and reselling new parts. By 1976 Arrow had transformed from a forklift "chop shop" to one of the industry's premier wholesale suppliers of aftermarket parts, attachments, and remanufactured assemblies.

Business was good, and Arrow enjoyed over a decade of prosperous growth. Then the industry itself began to shift.

"In the early to mid 1980's our industry became flooded with sellers of commodity parts, such as starters and brake shoes. The suppliers who'd once been reluctant to sell to non OEM's began to open up and Arrow went from being one of few, to one of many parts resellers. It became dog-eat-dog with prices and profit margins declining as everyone vied for business" said Ross Gault Sr., Arrow's current President and CEO.

"We decided to focus solely on products we considered as our core competencies; fork tines and attachments. Arrow's staff included skilled metal workers and engineers with the talent to use these core products as a base to design and build new and innovative product lines. Our sales department was excited about these new opportunities because it gave them something distinctive to sell and the products are top notch quality."

In addition to outside market shifts George Owens, who by that time was the sole owner of Arrow, was ready to retire. Gaslight Equity Group, LLC, a private equity group that partners with middle market entrepreneurial businesses purchased the assets of Arrow, retained Arrow's management team, then added capital to buy additional inventory and expand the company's production capabilities.

As Arrow evolved from a supplier of parts to an attachments manufacturing powerhouse, its business grew so substantially the company changed its name from Arrow Forklift Parts to Arrow Material Handling Products (AMH for short), to better reflect the current product offerings.

AMH continues to evolve and grow. In 2008 the company defied high transportation costs and the economic turndown by opening two distribution centers; one in Chesapeake, Virginia and one in Commerce City, California.

Arrow Material Handling
40th Anniversary