Kalmar Salutes Our Heroes

The U.S. military has around 1.4 million active personnel in total. All of which are people who have given their freedom to ensure ours. Protecting our country every day, allowing us to live the way we do. It is crucial that we do our part and show our appreciation to our military, whether active or not.

In May 2023, Kalmar held an auction for a specially wrapped terminal tractor to raise funds for a military charity of the winning dealer’s choice. This terminal tractor features smooth camouflage wrapping, but don't worry, you can still see it.

This reverse auction contains one terminal tractor, in which dealers compete against each other, allowing the highest bidder to donate the difference to a charity of their choice.

The winner of the truck was Wiese USA. Head of Marketing Laura Walter explains that “We always want to support our partners like Kalmar. We've been supporting Kalmar for a while. I think we've done a couple (terminal tractor auctions). It helps continue to build our partnership and it does more for our customers. Being able to give back is a good thing for us, it closely aligns with our culture and values.”

Wiese has worked with Kalmar for many years, even winning a previous charity truck auction in 2022 that raised money for childhood cancer awareness.

Wiese USA is a prominent company in the material handling industry, providing a wide range of products and services related to forklifts, aerial lifts, and other industrial equipment, employing around 1000 people across over 30 locations.

Wiese USA has chosen to donate the $25,000 raised to The Wounded Warriors Project. A charity specializing in providing various programs and services to wounded veterans who incurred physical or mental injuries, illnesses, or co-incidents from their military service.

“We're proud to support service members and families,” says Walter. “We're also proud to have employees from every branch of the military as part of our Wiese family, and we want to continue to honor their service by helping to support The Wounded Warrior project.”

"These types of events where we get to partner with our dealers to give back to worthy causes like this, are a very important part of our DNA at Kalmar Ottawa.” Explains Doug Queen, Director - Sales, terminal tractors, “We do several of these events annually, and the support that we get from our dealer network is absolutely amazing. It speaks volumes for how much we are collectively engaged in helping those that have given so much for this great country of ours.”

Being an industry leader, Kalmar is constantly looking to give back to the community and is excited to do more auctions like this in the future.

“Thank you to all of the dealers that participated in this event, and more importantly, thank you to all those that have served so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we do," concludes Queen.