50 Years of Proud Service

Equipment World started selling (and occasionally renting) forklifts in the ‘70s – and in fact, it became the second-oldest Toyota forklift dealer in Canada in 1976. After completing his post-secondary education and working outside of Equipment World for a multi-national supply company for several years, Lyle joined Equipment World in 1987. “Working outside of the family business really expanded my thinking in terms of the possibilities for what was our fairly small family business at the time,” Lyle says “I also was meeting customers and forming relationships that I would be continuing on with later when I joined Equipment World.” At the time Lyle joined Equipment World in 1987, as a territory sales rep, he was 1 of 10 employees.

Peter saw that the material handling industry wasn’t developed in Northern Ontario as in other centres and he changed that. Perhaps the most significant challenge the company faced during its initial stages was to convince customers that a need for specialists in the field of material handling existed,” he explains. “A big part of the challenge was to educate the customers who were used to dealing with businesses that utilized material handling equipment as a sideline versus us, who promoted it as our main line”. Once a small business in a 1,500 square foot building, on a back street in Thunder Bay, Equipment World has outgrown its location and is now surpassing a need for over 40,000 square feet, within two facilities in Thunder Bay’s industrial hub. “We’ve now been 44 years in our current location ”, says Peter Knudsen.

In 2017, we completed the acquisition of a local competitor, who focused on full line rentals. We have since expanded our rentals division to offer products and services, from DIY applications through to the heaviest of industrial applications. Our ever-expanding rental fleet now includes thousands of units available for short and long-term applications to support our customers throughout all Northern Ontario.

After 13 years of success in the Northwest, Equipment World expanded into Northeastern Ontario by opening the doors to its second division in Sudbury in 1988.

The division in Sault Ste Marie was later established in 1990. Aaron Wise is the General Manager of the Sault Ste. Marie location; “Having joined Equipment World in 2012, I have seen a lot of change and growth. Our diverse customer base in Sault Ste Marie has allowed us to continually evolve through offering the best creative solutions to meet their needs. We service customers in virtually all sectors including Heavy Industrial, Mining, Construction, Energy, Hospitality, Health Care, Retail and more. To support this growth, we have an experienced and dedicated team of professionals that have been the pillar of our success and will continue to be for the next 50 years.”

Debbie Beilhartz, Contract & Strategic Product Specialist for Equipment World in Sault Ste. Marie describes the relationships between branches, colleagues, and customers. “We are Family, is very fitting for how I would describe the strong relationships