After retiring in the late 1960's, John L. Grove started out on a cross country RV trip. After spending many years establishing his family built crane company with his brother, John had no idea that this journey would bring forth the rise of JLG Industries, Inc. The world leader of mobile aerial work platforms and precision materials handling equipment was the end result of a road trip.
While on their trip, John spent time talking to past business acquaintances whom the Groves stopped to visit along the way. These conversations combined with a tragic incidentâ??two workers being electrocuted on scaffolding when the Groves were traveling to the Hoover Damâ?? John discovered a considerable market for a product that could quickly and safely elevate people in the air to accomplish upkeep and other building functions.
Upon returning from their travels, John established a partnership with two friends and bought a metal fabrication business in McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania. In 1970, opening operations with a crew of twenty workers, they built and sold the first JLG aerial work platform. The business incorporates some of the basic design essentials of that original lift into current designs.
Since then, JLG Forklifts have come a long way from when Mr. John L. Grove returned from his fatefull cross-country journey and since the first JLG aerial platform entered the marketplace. As of today, the company has extended itself into quite a few international marketplaces and continues to develop new machines to guarantee that clients are able to become safer and more efficient within their workplace.