Toyota Forklifts history

History of Raymond began when George Raymond, Sr. purchased a foundry in the Village of Greene, New York in 1922.

Toyota Industries Corporation was founded in 1926 by Sakichi Toyoda to manufacture and sell the automatic looms which he had invented and perfected.

Sakichi passed away in October 1930 after dedicating 63 years to invention, but his spirit still lives on in all Toyota companies.

In 1936, the name change from “Toyoda” to “Toyota” occurred because the latter can be written with eight strokes in Japanese katakana.

BT was founded by Ivan Lundquist in 1946 in Sweden.

Production of hand pallet trucks began in 1947, and in the 50’s electric trucks were introduced.

In 1949 the revolutionary pallet was introduced, which together with the hand pallet truck became BT’s breakthrough.

Toyota began the development of its first lift truck in 1955.

Export operations start, which greatly expanded during the 1960's.

Increasing global demand for these products led to the first Toyota forklift sale in the United States in 1967.

From the invention of the Euro pallet, which became the first European standardised pallet, over the hydraulic hand pallet truck designed by Rune Monö, to the first driverless trucks in the 70s, and the reach truck with tiltable cabin in 1992.

By 1995, Toyota’s forklift production had reached 1 million units globally and was still going strong.

Keeping the spirit for more than 90 years, Raymond has been designing and manufacturing the superior electric lift trucks . Raymond joined BT Group in 1997.

The acquisition of BT Industries AB of Sweden and the introduction of the world’s first AC-powered electric forklift in 2000 further bolstered sales and market share.

To unify manufacturing and marketing, and sales operations, Toyota Material Handling was established in 2001 under Toyota Industries Corporation (TICO) with separate divisions across the globe, including Toyota Material Handling, USA (TMHU) in North America.

That same year, Toyota attained first place in global market share, and by 2002, it had also achieved first place in the US market share, both distinctions that are still held to this day.

In 2006, all brands were placed under Toyota Material Handling Group (TMHG). Through this organization, efforts are being made to pursue synergies among the historically strong brands with the aim of further strengthening global competitiveness.

Cascade Corporation, the world leader in designing and manufacturing material handling attachments and accessories, was later acquired in 2013.

TICO’s acquisition of Bastian Solutions, LLC and Vanderlande in 2017, for example, signifies Toyota’s strategic ambition to increase its presence in automated material handling, systems integration, and advanced logistics technology.

2019 Toyota Material Handling Australia becomes a proud distributor of the Taylor-Dunn range of burden carrier products, to complement its other range of non-forklift products such as lift platforms, scissor lifts, tow tractors, sweepers and scrubbers, and skid steer loaders.

TICO acquired TIE which later became Toyota Material Handling, USA, Inc. (TMHU), then Toyota Material Handling (TMH) in 2020.

2021 Toyota Material Handling Australia win the 28th Annual National Safety Award of Excellence in the Category 2C: Best Solution of a WHS Risk (Large Business) with our TMHA Tyne Lifter.