In mid June the 40,000th Kalmar terminal tractor unit rolled off the company’s assembly line in Ottawa, Kans. The terminal tractor was sold to YRC Worldwide (formerly Yellow Roadway Corp., Overland Park, Kans.) and was one unit in a package of over 75 units that the company has purchased from Kalmar this year.
Kalmar's first terminal tractor was built in Ottawa, Kansas in 1958. It took the U.S. operation 41 years to build the first 25,000 units and only seven years to build the next 15,000 units. Ottawa is the Stockholm-based company’s center for excellence in the global development and coordination of 4 x 2 terminal tractors with manufacturing locations in the United States, Europe and Asia. Effective September 1, 2006, all terminal tractors built at the Kansas facility will be branded Kalmar. Although the Ottawa brand has become a generic word for terminal tractors in North America, the brand migration reportedly reflects the bigger responsibility of the Kansas organization to the rest of the world.
To improve its product and service offering to customers in the US, the Ottawa facility began an extensive expansion program in early 2005 to make room for the assembly of the Kalmar medium-duty (9-18 ton) forklift. The first forklift was assembled in April 2005. In addition, the parts distribution center is being expanded to house additional staff and stock more inventory in order to provide better support to dealers and customers.
Source: Kalmar.
