Toyota marked a manufacturing milestone with the production and sale of its five hundred thousandth forklift built at the company’s manufacturing facility, Toyota Industrial Equipment Mfg, Inc. (TIEM). To mark the occasion, Toyota Forklifts of Atlanta President Lee Smith presented the 500,000 forklift, an 8-Series model, to customer RockTenn, the second largest paper company in the world.

“Toyota’s manufacturing achievement is the latest demonstration that we are responding to our customers’ need to deliver forklifts in North America with quality, technology, performance, fuel economy and value,” said Jeff Rufener, president of Toyota Material Handling, U.S.A., Inc. “We look forward to achieving our next production milestone thanks to the hard work and support of our world-class team of associates, dealers, suppliers and customers.”

 500,000 Forklifts Built Locally with Pride

Toyota has become the industry leader through unparalleled quality of engineering design, coupled with leading-edge manufacturing capabilities. In 1990, TIEM became the first Toyota lift truck manufacturing plant outside of Japan. Since the first lift truck rolled off the line more than 20 years ago, TIEM associates have built more than 500,000 lift trucks and Toyota has steadily penetrated the U.S. market to achieve the rank of the number one lift truck brand since 2002. Today, the majority of Toyota lift trucks sold in North America is produced at TIEM. The facility has the capability to manufacture a wide range of industrial equipment used in a variety of indoor and outdoor environments including: 3-wheel and 4-wheel electric lift trucks, internal combustion cushion tire and pneumatic tire lift trucks, diesel tow tractors and DC/AC inverter assemblies for the Toyota Tacoma.