Equipment Depot Opens New 75,000-Square-Foot Facility in Romeoville, Ill., to Meet Growing Electric Forklift Demand
Equipment Depot, a large independent material handling and equipment rental source, celebrated the grand opening of its new 75,000-square-foot facility in Romeoville, Ill.
Equipment Depot is not new to the Chicago area. “We have been serving the Chicago market since 1951,” said Equipment Depot’s regional vice president for Illinois Jade Bader. “We have a 70,000-square-foot warehouse in Itasca. With this move from Burr Ridge to Romeoville, we can further support the incredible growth in the warehousing sector. We are also excited to expand our service and repair resources as our customers’ needs increase.”
The facility held a ribbon-cutting ceremony, an equipment showcase, and provided an opportunity for the branch staff to build new community relationships.
Equipment Depot continues its rapid expansion — now operating in seven of the top 10 U.S. material handling markets. The company's rental inventory and parts department has also grown and now exceeds 12,000 rental units and more than 22 million in parts inventory. The company's annual service throughput, currently more than 362,000 hours per year, is also expected to ramp up dramatically, company officials said. This is a positive sign for the local Chicago area, as Equipment Depot of Illinois is seeking to fill multiple positions in the coming months to meet growing demands.
“To meet the demands of our warehouse customers in Chicago, we’ve recently more than doubled the size of our electric forklift rental fleet. We required substantially more space in order to house the vast number of additional Jungheinrich electric lift trucks,” Jonathan Hesener, Equipment Depot’s chief sales officer said. “As part of our corporate vision to reach a billion dollars in revenue by 2025, we are continually looking at new areas of growth, new approaches to solve customer challenges and innovative equipment and solutions which will allow us to positively impact all our existing and prospective customers’ businesses in the Chicago area."
In addition to the Jungheinrich product lineup, the Romeoville and Itasca locations will continue to provide its customers with an extensive OEM range, from Cat Lift Trucks, Mitsubishi, UniCarriers Forklifts, Rocla, and Sany Port & Heavy Trucks.
“We are excited for the opportunities a larger facility can provide to the Chicago market,” David Turner, president and CEO of Equipment Depot, said. “We are committed to our customers’ success and helping to ensure they receive the best service in the industry.”
Equipment Depot has been in business since 1939, specializing in material handling equipment with more than 50 nationwide locations. Equipment Depot is a member of Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas, the North American division of Mitsubishi Logisnext, a leading global provider of innovative logistics, automation, and material handling solutions. For more information, visit eqdepot.com
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.