For contractors throughout New England, the name on the building may have changed over the years, but the organization behind JCB equipment in the region is anything but new.
What today operates under the Alta Equipment banner traces its JCB roots in New England back to 2011, when Northland Industrial Truck Company — commonly known as NITCO — added the JCB construction equipment line to a business that until then had been primarily focused on material handling equipment.
Nearly 15 years later, that operation has evolved considerably. It has grown from a small startup construction equipment division into a much larger organization backed by the resources of Alta Equipment, with dedicated facilities, sales team, service technicians, parts support and equipment inventory serving customers throughout the region.
For Mark Silva, regional vice president of Alta Equipment, understanding that history is important because the changes in names and ownership can sometimes obscure the continuity that exists behind the business.
“We're not new to JCB and we're not new to the customers in this market,” Silva said. “We've been building this business for years. What has changed is the amount of support and resources we are able to put behind it.”
From NITCO to Northland JCB
Alta Equipment/Alta JCB photo
The relationship began in 2011 when NITCO, a longtime material handling dealer, saw an opportunity to expand into construction equipment with JCB.
It was a significant departure for the company.
At the time, NITCO had little history in the construction equipment business, and its fledgling JCB operation began with only a handful of employees. The JCB business initially operated under the Northland JCB name while remaining part of NITCO.
Silva joined the organization in 2013 after spending approximately 20 years in the construction equipment industry. He was asked to take responsibility for developing what was still essentially a startup JCB division.
What attracted him was JCB's approach to equipment design.
“I knew the innovation of the JCB product,” he said. “Their whole product line has always been about innovation and finding ways to improve productivity and safety for the customer.”
But Silva also recognized something else.
An innovative machine is only as valuable to a contractor as the organization standing behind it.
“Every machine is mechanical and eventually every machine is going to need something,” he said. “The important thing is uptime — how quickly you can respond to that customer and get that machine back to work.”
As Northland JCB grew, the company increasingly added team members and resources dedicated specifically to construction equipment. The operation ultimately became one of JCB's leading U.S. dealers.
Another major step came when Alta Equipment acquired NITCO and its Northland JCB operation. Alta recognized that construction equipment and material handling required different facilities, team members, inventories and support structures and continued the process of separating the construction operation into a dedicated business. As a result of this acquisition, Alta JCB, a division of Alta Equipment, was formed.
That investment, Silva said, helped create the organization serving JCB customers today.
Expanding New England Footprint
Alta Equipment/Alta JCB photo
Alta's growth also has expanded the geographic reach of its product support.
Among Alta JCB's operations are facilities serving markets from southern New England into New Hampshire and Maine, including locations in Middleborough, Mass.; Concord, N.H.; and Scarborough, Maine.
The Scarborough facility represents one of Alta's more recent investments in its New England construction equipment operation, giving the company a dedicated presence in an important Maine market.
Alta's acquisition of Ambrose Equipment also added another established New England equipment organization to the Alta family.
Based in Hooksett, N.H., Ambrose has developed a particularly strong reputation in the paving industry and represents LeeBoy throughout most of New England. Alta has deliberately retained the Ambrose identity because of the name recognition and reputation the company has built among paving contractors.
At the same time, bringing Ambrose into the larger Alta organization has created opportunities to expand product support geographically.
Rather than dispatching every technician from Hooksett, for example, Alta can provide support for applicable products from locations including Scarborough and Middleborough, reducing travel and improving response time.
It also creates opportunities to introduce longtime Ambrose customers to equipment available through the broader Alta organization, including JCB.
More Than JCB
Alta Equipment/Alta JCB photo
While JCB represents an important part of Alta JCB's New England construction equipment business, the company's regional offering has continued to expand.
Alta also represents several complementary equipment manufacturers, including Avant, Toro and Vibroscreen.
Avant compact articulated loaders have developed a following among landscape contractors, hardscape contractors, tree services, tent companies and other customers requiring significant lifting capacity while minimizing ground disturbance.
“The niche of Avant is having that lifting capability without leaving a footprint,” Silva said. “If you're working on somebody's lawn, you can go in, do the work and leave without having to repair everything behind you.”
The machines also offer a large selection of attachments, giving them applications beyond traditional landscaping.
That versatility has generated growing municipal interest as well. A municipality, for example, can equip an Avant for sidewalk snow removal during winter and use the same power unit with different attachments throughout the remainder of the year.
“It allows them to justify that investment in the budget because it's not something that gets parked when winter is over,” Silva said.
Vibroscreen provides another complementary product, particularly for contractors needing a relatively compact and mobile screening solution. The product has strong roots in New England's portable screening market and can allow contractors to process excavated material on site rather than automatically hauling it away and purchasing replacement material.
Alta Resources Behind JCB
Alta Equipment has grown into one of the country's largest multi-line equipment dealer organizations, giving its New England operation access to the financial and organizational resources required in what has become an increasingly capital-intensive industry.
For Silva, that matters particularly when it comes to equipment inventory, rental fleets, parts availability, field service and technical support.
He believes dealer support has historically been one of the factors affecting JCB's ability to gain greater recognition in the United States.
“Everything in this country is about distribution and dealers,” Silva said. “You need the capital to have the inventory, to be able to rent equipment and, most importantly, to be able to support it.”
Alta provides that foundation.
Silva said the New England operation has grown significantly since Alta's involvement, with dedicated branches and additional team members supporting its construction customers. Rather than focusing on how many employees, trucks or parts are in the system, however, Silva prefers to measure the investment by what happens when a customer's machine goes down.
“Our ability to get out to somebody quickly and get a customer who is down back up and running is unbelievable,” he said. “That's what ultimately matters to the customer.”
That philosophy extends throughout the organization.
Silva said customers frequently develop particularly close relationships with their Alta sales representatives, but responsibility for customer uptime doesn't stop with the salesperson.
“It doesn't matter who you speak to,” he said. “Everyone understands the importance of uptime. If the sales rep is the person you call, he's going to get you to the right people. Sometimes the normal system works perfectly and sometimes something happens. Maybe it's a backordered part or something unexpected. That's when you have to find a way to get the customer back up and running.”
Silva describes that willingness to “go the extra” as part of Alta's culture.
JCB Built Around Innovation
Alta Equipment/Alta JCB photo
Backing that support organization is a JCB product line that has expanded considerably from the machines for which the British manufacturer historically was best known.
For many contractors, JCB's name remains closely associated with backhoe loaders and telehandlers. Both remain important parts of the company's offering, but today's JCB lineup extends considerably beyond those traditional products.
One of the clearest examples is JCB's skid steer and compact track loader design.
Rather than requiring an operator to climb over an attachment to enter the cab, JCB developed its single-arm PowerBoom design with side-door entry.
“No one climbs over a bucket to get into a wheel loader or another piece of equipment,” Silva said. “JCB looked at that and designed the machine around safety and accessibility.”
JCB has continued developing that concept, including models incorporating telescopic reach.
Its wheel loader range extends from compact approximately 1-cu.-yd. machines through loaders in the approximately 5- to 5.5-cu.-yd. class.
Another increasingly important part of Alta's business is JCB's excavator lineup.
“We're starting to have tremendous success with the excavators, particularly in that 30,000- to 80,000-pound range,” Silva said. “It's a product that should get more attention for how good it is and for the value proposition. It's really a well-built product. It's a matter of getting the word out.”
JCB also differs from some manufacturers in that its equipment is designed and manufactured as JCB equipment rather than filling gaps in its lineup with machines produced by other manufacturers and carrying the JCB name.
Hydradig Demonstrates Different Approach
Alta Equipment/Alta JCB photo
Perhaps few machines better illustrate JCB's willingness to rethink conventional equipment design than the Hydradig wheeled excavator.
Instead of placing major components behind the cab, JCB positioned much of the machine's drivetrain between its axles. The result is improved visibility as well as a low center of gravity and increased stability.
Silva said Alta has experienced strong interest in the machine, with demand at times exceeding available supply.
“The Hydradig is one of the most innovative machines in the market,” he said. “When they designed it from the ground up, they took the components that traditionally sit behind the cab and put them between the axles.”
That gives an operator exceptional visibility around the machine while also contributing to stability.
Its relatively narrow dimensions and maneuverability make the Hydradig particularly well suited to New England applications where contractors frequently work in confined urban environments.
Silva pointed to curb replacement, utility work and projects on older streets where space can be extremely limited.
“It has great capability, great maneuverability and great visibility,” he said.
The machine also allows the operator to select either direction as the machine's forward travel direction, another feature intended to make moving between work areas more efficient.
Same Relationships, More Resources
That may ultimately be the simplest way to describe Alta Equipment's JCB story in New England.
It isn't the arrival of another equipment dealer or another manufacturer attempting to establish itself in the region.
It is the latest chapter of a JCB organization that began building its presence in New England in 2011 and has steadily added people, locations, equipment and support capabilities.
Market acceptance has grown along with it, Silva said, as more contractors have had an opportunity to operate JCB equipment and experience the dealer support behind it.
But despite the investment in facilities, inventory and infrastructure, Silva believes Alta's greatest strength remains its people.
“We are so fortunate to have talented people who really care about what they do,” he said. “From our sales leaders and our sales representatives to our product support team and everyone throughout the organization, we have passionate people who come in every day focused on taking care of the customer. Without all of them, we simply can't be the great company we are.”
For contractors who remember Northland JCB, NITCO or some of the other names associated with the organization over the years, Silva wants the message to be straightforward.
The organization hasn't disappeared.
It has grown.
Today, the JCB business those customers have known for years has the people and experience developed in the New England market — backed by the resources and product-support capabilities of Alta JCB.
And behind it is a JCB product line that continues to do what first attracted Silva to the brand more than a decade ago: challenge conventional equipment design and find a different way to build a machine.
