Manitou

Manitou is a French company that manufactures forklift trucks and has to it's credit the world’s first rough-terrain forklift-truck. The company’s products are mainly targeted at three sectors: building, agriculture and industries. From 1958 onward, Manitou has seen steady growth with the addition of more distributors as well as trade that extends to over 120 countries across the world including America, Japan, Australia and Africa. The wide product range is categorised under different sub-brands, each dealing with a specific line of forklift trucks. For example, Manitou markets rough-terrain masted fork-lift trucks for industrial and semi-industrial sectors. Maniloaders deal with compact loaders, Maniaccess offers vertical, articulated, scissor and telescopic access platforms, while Manilec is a sub-brand name for warehouse equipment like pallet forklift-trucks and stackers.

Maniscopic, another subsidiary of Manitou, promotes high-capacity rough-terrain and rotating telescopic forklift-trucks. Other sub-brands operated by the parent company include Manitransit, a brand for truck-mounted forklift, and Manihoe, forklift-trucks that have front telescopic arms and a shovel mounted at the rear. Forklift trucks manufactured by Manitou are either hired by the end users or are bought directly from the company. However, the market also offers used forklift trucks at cheaper rates. Refurbished forklift trucks are also sold at discounted rates by the company.