Q: How would you describe the current market for forklifts?
A: Immediately after the pandemic outbreak, industry numbers in North America soared, reaching record levels in 2021 and 2022. But today, the market appears to have settled into a more normal, yet still strong, state. Robust growth in 2025 demonstrates the market’s resilience and has further bolstered confidence that the expansion in e-commerce, automation, and electrification will continue to fuel growth for the foreseeable future.
Q: You have a background in engineering and design. How has that helped you in your current marketing role?
A: The lift truck industry is unique in that many, dare I say most, of the commercial leaders are engineers who started in this industry designing forklifts. I am confident that my background, which began in 1992 as a design engineer for one of the top lift truck OEMs [original equipment manufacturers], has established a solid foundation for my career.
While my role today, serving as chief marketing officer for Big Joe Forklifts, has taken me far from my engineering roots, I often find myself leveraging two key attributes I feel are in most engineers’ DNA—an insatiable appetite to please the customer and the ability to build something great. This DNA, combined with Big Joe’s amazing culture of genuinely placing the customer first, has empowered the market to see Big Joe in a different light and to experience firsthand how Big Joe plans to be an influential leader in the industry for years to come.
Q: You have 30 years of experience working in the forklift industry. What are some of the biggest changes you’ve seen during that time?
A: In the early 2000s, soon after OSHA’s mandatory forklift operator safety training became effective, the topic of safety quickly reached fever pitch. Fleet management telemetry systems that incorporated operator access, OSHA daily checklists, and impact sensing were introduced. OEMs began to implement truck stability systems designed to reduce the likelihood of incidents involving lift trucks.
While efforts behind operator training and improving truck designs have remained steady over the years, significant changes to forklift designs were few and far between—until now. Today, the introduction of lithium-ion battery technology, advancements in automation, and the introduction of artificial intelligence are all working together to set the stage for some amazing advancements in the industrial market.
Q: Could you explain why the forklift industry is continuing to move away from internal-combustion engines in favor of electric models?
A: Ever since I entered this industry in 1992 as a young engineer, everyone has been talking about the electrification of the market. Studying the trend lines from 1984, when the overall lift truck market was an even 50/50 split between internal-combustion (IC) and electric models, the movement to electric is evident. But a deeper analysis clearly shows this shift was fueled by expansion in the warehouse market, which drove higher demand for electric-powered equipment like walkie pallet trucks, pantograph reach trucks, and order pickers.
By stripping out electric warehouse equipment, classified as ITA Classes 2 and 3, and focusing on the movement from internal-combustion to electric equipment, it is clear the shift to electrical has been at a snail’s pace. The anchor holding operations back from moving from IC to electrical has been lead-acid battery technology. With the advent of lithium, all the pains associated with lead-acid battery solutions are solved. These lithium battery solutions, combined with much-improved charging technology, are finally empowering operations to confidently make the leap from IC to electric.
Q: Why has Big Joe chosen to manufacture its own lithium-ion batteries?
A: For 75 years, Big Joe has consistently focused its efforts on developing industry-leading electric equipment and solutions for the material handling industry. Big Joe prides itself on being a customer-centric disrupter, developing high-quality solutions that directly address the pain points many customers face in their material handling operations.
Over a decade ago, Big Joe saw where the market was headed and recognized the role lithium would play in the future. To be recognized as the leader in converting internal-combustion users to electric, we had to become self-reliant by owning all areas of battery design, testing, manufacturing, and support.
Third-party retrofittable lithium solutions may have gained some traction today, but at Big Joe, all of our sit-down counterbalanced electric forklifts feature our own battery technology, integrated directly into the equipment for an optimal experience for the operator. For our customers, there is great comfort knowing that with Big Joe, it’s not about the truck, battery, and charger—it’s about the overall package as a singular solution.
Q: Where do you feel forklift innovation will take us in the next 10 years?
A: With electrification and automation still in the early stages of gaining momentum in the market, I predict the next 10 years will be marked by bold and notable changes, including the following:·
- The death of the ITA Class 4 Cushion IC Forklift classification: With Big Joe’s relentless effort to be the leader in electrification, we are driving toward a future where operating an internal-combustion forklift indoors will be seen as inconceivable, much the way much of the population views smoking on an airplane, in the office, or in a restaurant today. Our driving vision at Big Joe is to have a new generation of professionals enter this industry and question why there is a gap between ITA Class 3 and Class 5 forklifts.
- Contraction of third-party lithium battery suppliers: Today, there are about 20 third-party battery suppliers that offer retrofittable lithium battery solutions designed to replace lead-acid batteries. As other OEMs follow Big Joe’s lead by developing their own lithium batteries and integrating them directly into their forklifts, there is an expectation that the number of lithium battery suppliers will be just a fraction of what it is today.
- Automation, automation, automation: The past 10 years have been exciting in terms of the level of automation in the material handling space. When you go to industry trade shows, it seems that all the lift truck OEMs have some level of automation to showcase. With all the autonomous solutions available, it’s a bit surprising that more companies haven’t embraced the technology, particularly given the labor constraints the nation is experiencing. As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance across all aspects of our lives, industrial automation will become less complex and will continue to gain the confidence of the industrial market. In a similar fashion to the electrification trend, Big Joe sees itself as a significant player in this area, developing “approachable automation that simply works.”