History

CB Equipment Company dba CB Toyota-Lift was founded in 1967 by Herbert and Leonard Clark, hence the initials "CB" were born out of the Clark Brothers collaboration. It is the fourth Toyota forklift franchise in the U.S. Its first operation was based in Portland, Oregon. The Portland plant moved to the new industrial area in Clackamas, Oregon eight years ago.

In 1973, a branch operation was opened in Kent, Washington, the Seattle area's industrial core. Toyota forklifts remained the core of the product line, with full shop and field service operations following in 1976. Toyota awarded a separate dealer status to the then Kent branch in the late 1970's and the status of "branch" was elevated to an independently managed group.

The President of CB Toyota-lift is Bob Downie. The owners are all members of the Clark family.

CB Toyota-Lift is well financed and extremely well regarded as financially strong by vendors. The balance sheet reveals very little debt. This has allowed both CB Toyota-Lift operations to enjoy steady growth without a major concern for securing capital.

The CB Dealerships have five operating departments including New Product Sales, Used Equipment Sales, Rental Sales, Parts, and Service Sales.

Our Service Department is staffed by journey level service technicians in our Service Shops and field technicians provide service at customer sites. Our Service Vehicles are equipped with compressors, welders, waste disposal and emergency cleanup facilities, parts cleaners, all necessary tools, safety equipment and up to $12,000 worth of replacement parts.

Our Parts Departments stock large, ready to ship inventories of Toyota and all other brands of forklift parts. Our technicians are well trained to work on all forklift brands and are well supported by high quality, competitively priced parts from stock.

CB Toyota-Lift can provide customers with Fleet Cost Records to help them track forklift maintenance and parts costs per vehicle and to help determine the economic life of forklifts.

We also will provide, periodically, customized summaries of routine maintenance, field breakdown, and shop repair costs, by vehicle, if so desired by our customers. Quarterly or annual summaries seem well suited for customer internal cost controls. We try to customize our presentation to integrate with our customers' control systems.

CB Toyota-Lift provides a variety of forklift safety products, including forklift operator safety training, plant hazard warning signs, battery charging room layouts, safe operation decals for forklifts and other devices including "smart" reverse direction alarms, strobe lights and other light packages.

CB Toyota-Lift has developed a number of products and techniques to provide maximum protection to forklifts and pallet trucks operating in cold and wet environments. These include special hydraulic hoses and fittings that function well at below minus 20 degrees fahrenheit, low temperature pour fluids, and corrosion resistant treatments.

Currently, CB Toyota-Lift employs nine sales professionals in Washington and six in Oregon. CB Toyota-Lift has an excellent reputation as a very stable, well-financed industrial products supplier, and we have enjoyed a great deal of success in the markets we serve.