GLTC wins Crown’s Summit Award for the second year running

Goscor Lift Truck Company has won the 2019 Summit Award – an accolade bestowed to Crown’s best global dealer of the year – which is testimony to the company’s world-class customer support capabilities.    

For the second year in a row, Goscor Lift Truck Company (GLTC) has won the Summit Award, the most prestigious honour bestowed by Crown to its top independent dealer of the year.

Traditionally, Crown has always recognised the outstanding performances of its company-owned branches. Three years ago, the global market leader in electric forklifts extended the awards to include its independent dealers worldwide.

Crown Equipment is a global leader in the evolution of the material handling industry, earning more than 100 global design awards and launching new technologies to increase uptime and lower total cost of ownership.

Since its entry into the material handling equipment industry in 1960, Crown has earned a reputation as a leading innovator in world-class forklift and material handling equipment. Its broad global dealer network provides a wide variety of quality material handling equipment, storage solutions and support services.

Today, Crown manufactures a wide variety of electric and internal combustion lift trucks and components in 19 facilities throughout the world. Product sales and service are handled by the company’s network of Crown-owned and independent dealers located in key markets. Dealer and sales personnel are factory-trained in all disciplines and backed by advertising

At the inaugural awards in 2018, GLTC was the co-winner of the 2017 Ascent Award, which recognises branches and dealers that performed well and “are continuing to move towards the summit”. A year later, the Crown dealer for southern Africa was at the “summit” of the OEM’s dealership standards globally, walking away with the Summit Award for 2018.

Winning the award for the second year running, says Patrick Barber, Sales Director at GLTC, speaks volumes of the company’s world-class support structures and capabilities. “This is an international award which puts us against some top European dealers. To be recognised by the best manufacturer of electric forklifts in the world as its best dealer speaks volumes of our capabilities, which sets us apart in the southern African landscape,” he says.

The Summit Award, says Barber, is judged on several criteria. “There are numerous aspects considered,” he says. “Market share is obviously one of them – particularly growth and maintenance of market share in specific product categories. Of greater significance is parts holding as well as training and development. To give an idea, we are the only dealer in the world that has a Crown-accredited training centre.”

Barber notes that the awards criteria and categories are continuously getting more stringent every year. “They change annually, and it’s about continuously improving our own internal processes and procedures,” he says.

To give a context, GLTC in 2018 became the first forklift supplier to attain both the ISO 9001: 2015 and OHSAS 18001 accreditations in South Africa. Added to that is its world-class Demonstrative Performance (DP) Training Centre and the amount of technicians trained every year.

In a move that will allow the company to train more staff to raise the knowledge pool within the organisation, GLTC last year invested in the certification of a second DP trainer by its principal, Crown. Having two DP trainers has allowed the leading materials handling equipment provider to train a large number of employees, thereby raising the knowledge base within the company.

In conclusion, Barber notes that GLTC “doesn’t necessarily compete” for the awards, but its two consecutive wins are a result of the company’s continued internal compliance, which makes it competitive. “We get ourselves to be the best we can and the awards are recognition of the hard yards we continue to put in,” he says.