ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Volvo CE took two dramatic steps towards its goal of becoming a major player in the U.S. construction equipment market with the acquisition of telescopic forklift and skid-steer loader lines.

Volvo reached an agreement to acquire the exclusive rights to the design and manufacture of UpRight's telehandler products, as well as the assets of Scat Trak, the skid-steer loader business of Omniquip, a division of Textron.

UpRight will continue to support the existing field population of telehandlers, including parts, technical and training services, and product warranties. According to Volvo CE, the products will be further developed and launched globally under the Volvo brand during 2003.

As part of the sale agreement, UpRight will offer the Volvo manufactured telescopic handler under the UpRight brand name, further maintaining the support to existing telehandler customers. UpRight was also named as the exclusive supplier of aerial work platforms to the rental initiative recently launched by Volvo CE.

“In the process of restructuring and refocusing the UpRight business, we determined very early in our analysis that another solution had to be found for our telehandler product,” said Ian Menzies, president and CEO of UpRight. “Our intense focus over the next year will be on our scissor and boom product lines.”

In acquiring the Scat Trak assets, Volvo obtained exclusive manufacturing and product design rights, a complete range of five different skid steers, tooling and inventory. Manufacturing facilities are not part of the agreement.

The acquisition of Scat Trak adds an important line of products to Volvo CE's compact construction equipment offering and will, at the same time, strongly reinforce the company's recently launched rental initiative. The product range will be further developed and launched globally under the Volvo brand in late 2002. The products will be assembled at Volvo CE's Asheville plant, the company said.