From warehousing to innovation: A Square’s next chapter with STILL

As A Square Forklifts moves forward as the new official agent for STILL equipment in Southern Africa, the company is placing a strategic focus on strengthening the brand’s regional presence and growing its market share across key industrial and logistics sectors. Lifting Africa spoke to Craig Bradford, Managing Director at A Square, to find out more.

The appointment comes at a time when businesses across Southern Africa are placing renewed emphasis on uptime, safety, productivity and lifecycle cost control - factors that are increasingly shaping procurement decisions in both warehousing and heavy-duty industrial environments. “STILL is a frontline global brand, but it hasn’t been represented in South Africa at any sort of scale. They needed a stronger distributor with national coverage giving them strong representation in the country,” says Bradford.

A Square has been the distributor and agent for the renowned Japanese manufacturer Nichiyu since 2006 - a partnership that has seen the company successfully establish the name in the South African market.

“Nichiyu is a phenomenal product, but the range is fairly limited and it is purely electric. We were looking for a strong warehousing offering as well as an internal combustion range. It just so happened that our needs dovetailed perfectly. The partnership also gives us access to first-class, technologically advanced products - particularly a wide, constantly expanding range of autonomous and semi-autonomous materials handling equipment.”

Building brand recognition

Bradford is excited about the prospects for STILL in the South African market. “Our focus will initially be on South Africa before we look at expanding further into the region,” he says. “By virtue of our presence in the market - and the feet on the ground we offer - we believe we will automatically be able to provide STILL with far wider coverage. Our experience in launching Nichiyu also holds us in good stead.” He recalls the challenges of introducing Nichiyu to the local market, particularly following a rebrand. “It used to be NYK, which was great as people understood NYK. As soon as it landed with the new name, and they rebranded it as Nichiyu, everybody associated it with a Chinese product,” he explains.

At the time, he says, there was strong resistance to Chinese equipment in South Africa, driven by quality concerns linked to early imports in the late 1990s. “We worked hard to change those perceptions and to position Nichiyu as the value offering that it is.”

That experience, Bradford says, reinforced the importance of long-term customer confidence, built through performance, support and proof on the floor. “We don’t have a budget option in our range and that is a choice,” he says. “We don’t want to be the cheapest and we don’t compete at that level of product.”

To support the rollout of STILL, Bradford adds that A Square has several demo machines available, allowing customers to test the equipment in their own operations before committing to a purchase.

Fit-for-purpose across diverse operations

Bradford believes materials handling selection is increasingly being shaped by operational reality rather than geography. While some applications demand tougher, more resilient machines, he says these conditions are not unique to Africa.

“The South African market spans a wide range of operating environments — from high-intensity industrial sites to world-class warehousing operations run by global logistics leaders,” he says. “That diversity makes the case for solutions that balance durability with efficiency and precision.”

Looking ahead, Bradford says a broader shift is also underway as warehousing begins to outpace manufacturing in South Africa. “Everything we used to make, we now have to store,” he says. “So there’s a move more towards warehousing, which ties in perfectly with STILL’s broad and advanced warehousing range.” It is this shift, he says, that is sharpening customer focus on throughput, lift height capability and efficiency in high-density storage operations. While STILL brings a broad portfolio to the market, Bradford points to reach-truck performance and residual capacity at maximum height as a key differentiator.

“One of the big things in a warehouse is residual capacity at maximum height,” he explains. STILL’s reach trucks can operate up to 13 metres and at that height can lift up to 970kg, close to a ton. “That’s right on the leading edge,” he says, noting that some comparable machines derate significantly at height, limiting what can be safely lifted.

A different approach to heavy-duty performance

On the counterbalance side, he says STILL’s offering extends beyond conventional diesel-only options in larger classes. “STILL has very large electric machines as well,” he notes, including an 8-ton electric model that he says can outperform diesel in certain applications. But it is in harsh-duty environments, he says, where STILL’s drivetrain technology becomes particularly compelling. A Square has recently secured an order into a paper manufacturing operation, a notoriously demanding setting, where Bradford says customers have historically relied on hydrostatic transmission solutions.

A defining advantage, he explains, is STILL’s approach on its premium internal combustion machines: instead of driving a traditional power-shift or hydrostatic transmission, the diesel engine powers a generator, which then drives sealed electric motors at the wheels. The result is a machine that delivers the controllability of electric drive with the runtime benefits of diesel, while reducing wear points associated with friction packs and transmission components. Bradford says this also supports fuel efficiency, with the engine running at a consistent RPM and power delivery managed through demand on the generator.

“There is nobody else in the world producing an equivalent product to that,” he says.

Market outlook: cautious optimism Bradford describes the market as competitive and price sensitive, shaped by low-cost Eastern entrants that put pressure on margins and long-term sustainability. While some newer products are acceptable, he warns that many customers struggle to differentiate between quality until reliability and support issues surface over time.

Even so, he says sentiment has improved entering 2026, supported by shifting fundamentals. Interest rates have started to ease, exchange rates have improved against the dollar and market confidence has lifted.

He anticipates strong growth as STILL begins filtering through the business. “Conservatively, I anticipate growth of 30% year on year in our business,” he says. “Our target is not necessarily to be number one in the market but being in the top five is achievable.”

A Square Forklift,

+27 (0) 86 036 7543,

sales@asquare.co.za,

www.forklift.co.za