Doosan Bobcat has announced a new subsidiary – Doosan Industrial Vehicles (DIV). Formerly known as the DIV Business Group (BG) of the Doosan Corporation, Doosan Bobcat completed the acquisition of a 100% stake in DIV on 6 July 2021, for KRW 750 billion (557 million EUR). 

On 1 July 2021, 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% 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 company is expecting annual sales in 2021 to surpass KRW 1 trillion (743 million EUR) for the first time since the business was founded, as sales volumes surge due to increased demand for DIV products in North America and elsewhere.

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.