Barloworld celebrates 110years of success

Date: 15/6/2012

Staff at Barloworld Handling's worldwide headquarters in Maidenhead, Berkshire, are celebrating 110 years since the formation of the Barloworld global business.

Today the parent company has operations in 27 countries and is active in the industrial equipment, automotive and logistics sectors, with annual revenues of £4.5 billion. This includes serving as the world's largest Hyster distributor, building on a relationship originally formed in South Africa in the late 1920s.

Phil Bastow, managing director of Barloworld Handling in the UK, comments: "Few companies can lay claim to being part of an organisation successfully trading for more than a century. This anniversary is a major milestone and we're naturally celebrating it across the group.

Bastow says that customers value the wealth of experience Barloworld has within the materials handling sector. He explains: "For 83 years we've been writing and rewriting the rule book on every aspect of materials handling. We know this industry inside out, we thrive on adding value to our customers' businesses, managing equipment in some of the harshest environments and we look forward to new challenges."

Today Barloworld Handling is one of the UK's largest forklift and warehouse equipment specialists and the sole Hyster distributor - with 17 service centres and 400 engineers. Last year it recorded double digit growth and divisional revenue rose to £362 million.

The Barloworld business began when Ernest (Billy) Barlow, a major in the British army, went to South Africa during the second Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. After the war Billy stayed in the country and founded Thomas Barlow & Sons in Durban, initially selling woollen goods, and within five years, branching out to engineering components.

In 1929 Billy's son ‘Punch' approached US-based Hyster and secured the materials handling dealership in South Africa - a partnership that continues to grow, with the company currently expanding its footprint in southern Africa and Russia.

For more information about Barloworld Handling in the UK visit www.barloworld.co.uk, and for the group's international operations visit www.barloworld.com