Doosan Bobcat announced a new subsidiary – Doosan Industrial Vehicles (DIV) – following its acquisition of the material handling equipment company from South Korean conglomerate Doosan Corporation. 

The construction equipment affiliate of Doosan Corporation, Doosan Bobcat, said it has completed the acquisition of a 100 per cent stake in DIV from Doosan Corporation for $661 million. DIV makes material handling equipment including forklifts and warehouse equipment.

Formerly known as the DIV Business Group (BG) of the Doosan Corporation, DIV announced that it had split from Doosan Corporation and that its Board of Directors had appointed Executive Vice President, Taeil Kim, the head of DIV BG since 2020, as the new CEO of DIV.

Now part of Doosan Bobcat, DIV offers a wide range of material handling equipment, including forklift, warehouse equipment and downstream businesses.

Founded in 1968, DIV was the first company to produce forklifts in Korea, and is now the market leader with an unrivalled share of the Korean forklift market, which has been growing at an average annual rate of 7 per cent since 2015.

DIV boasts diverse product lines including 1.5 to 30 t engine forklifts, 1 to 5 t electric forklifts and logistics equipment for warehouses. In line with the growing trend towards digital transformation and the sharing economy, DIV has been running a ‘downstream’ business that provides total services comprising forklift rental, used equipment sales and vehicle maintenance services since 2018.

DIV is expanding its business portfolio based on new technologies such as a real-time data collection, utilisation and automation system equipped with Lin-Q, a telematics system developed by DIV.

According to DIV, the firm is expecting annual sales in 2021 to surpass KRW 1 trillion. Following DIV’s incorporation as one of its subsidiaries, Doosan Bobcat anticipates the creation of synergistic effects driven by deeper cost reduction and stronger dealer networks, coupled with the expansion of its product portfolio and enhanced organisational influence.