Berry Companies Acquires Bright Equipment/Bobcat of Indy
Berry Companies Inc. recently acquired Bright Equipment Inc., better known as Bobcat of Indy.
Bright Equipment was founded in 1962 when the Bright family acquired the local Ford tractor dealership. In 1976 Bright took on the Bobcat line and has expanded over time. Currently the company employs more than 90 employees at six stores.
This acquisition includes all six stores: Bobcat of Indy, Bobcat of Anderson, Bobcat of Indy North, Bobcat of Ellettsville, Bobcat of Kokomo, and Bobcat of Columbus. Bobcat of Indy will become the ninth division of Berry Companies.
Walter Berry, CEO, said, “Berry Companies is pleased to expand our business into Indiana. We are confident that the Bobcat of Indy customers will continue to receive the excellent service that they are accustomed to. Our commitment to our employees and our customers is what will make Bobcat of Indy continue to grow in the future.”
“We are pleased to bring all Bright Equipment employees over to the Berry family,” said Steve Meadows, president of operations for Berry Companies. “We understand that the secret to success is our employees, and the Bobcat of Indy team is a great addition.”
Berry Companies was founded as Berry Tractor & Equipment Co. in Wichita, Kan., in 1957 by Fred Berry and his late brother Paul. Today, Berry Companies Inc. is run by Walter Berry (Fred’s son) and operates eight divisions throughout the Midwest: Berry Tractor & Equipment (Komatsu), Berry Material Handling (Hyster - Yale), and six Bobcat divisions: White Star Machinery, Bobcat of the Rockies, Bobcat of Houston, K.C. Bobcat, Bobcat of North Texas, and Bobcat of Atlanta.
Berry Companies is No. 52 on the RER 100.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.