Atlet was a Swedish company that manufactured indoor and outdoor
truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construct ...
s. The company also provided services related to trucks and material handling, such as
logistics
Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...
analysis, training and service. The head office, manufacturing and training premises were located in
Mölnlycke
Mölnlycke is a small town nearby Greater Gothenburg, a locality and the seat of Härryda Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 17,499 inhabitants in 2019. The urban area stretches over two municipalities. Mölndal Municipalit ...
, just outside Göteborg,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
.
Nissan Forklift Co. Ltd. bought Atlet in 2007 and merged with Mitsubishi and changed the name to Unicarriers. Mitsubishi later bought out Unicarriers and changed the name to Mitsubishi.
History
Knut Jacobsson started Elitmaskiner in
Gothenburg
Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
in 1958.
[Bergqvist, Peter. "Bra affärer för Atlet", Verkstäderna. 28 November 2012, p. 22.] At the time the company only made trucks for indoor use. Elitmaskiner changed its name to Atlet in 1966.
The company started by making hand pallet trucks.
Around 1960, powered stackers and telereach trucks dominated the market. Knut Jacobsson then invented the pedestrian stacker that had a lifting capacity comparable with the telereach trucks, but could be used in narrower aisles, thanks to its patented side stabilizers.
Atlet started providing training for truck operators in the 70s. Technical developments continued with computerized simulations of warehouse management solutions, automatic trucks and mobile terminal systems, and between 1988 and 1994 Atlet took part in a development project in collaboration with doctors and occupational therapists. This resulted in
Tergo, a telereach truck with ergonomic solutions such as the mini steering wheel and floating armrest.
Jacobsson left the CEO position in 1995, letting his daughter, Marianne Nilson, take over.
[Börjesson, Karin. "Atlets nya VD har tagit över", ]Göteborgs-Posten
(), abbreviated GP, is a major Swedish language, Swedish-language daily newspaper published in Gothenburg, Sweden.
History and profile
was first published in 1813, but ceased publication in 1822. It re-appeared in 1850. Publication seven day ...
. 28 April 1995. It was then Sweden's biggest family-owned engineering company and one of the leading European truck manufacturers.
, a subsidiary of the
Nissan Motor Company
is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house performance tuning pr ...
, bought Atlet AB in 2007.
["Nissan tar över Atlet", ]Göteborgs-Posten
(), abbreviated GP, is a major Swedish language, Swedish-language daily newspaper published in Gothenburg, Sweden.
History and profile
was first published in 1813, but ceased publication in 1822. It re-appeared in 1850. Publication seven day ...
. 5 September 2007.
Nissan Motor Company spun-off its Industrial Machinery Division and establish a new company, “Nissan Forklift Co., Ltd.”, effective from October 1, 2010.
[Atlet, Henrik Moberger, Tärnan Reportage AB 2008. ]
See also
*
A Ergo
The A Ergo is a stand-in stacker forklift truck pioneered by the Swedish truck manufacturing company Atlet AB. When Atlet was founded in 1958, the truck market consisted of many types of trucks including the reach truck
A forklift (also c ...
Sources
{{reflist
External links
Atlet AB
Manufacturing companies of Sweden
Nissan
Companies based in Västra Götaland County
1958 establishments in Sweden
1950s establishments in Gothenburg and Bohus County