Hyster is a manufacturing company specializing in forklifts

Forklift truck

A forklift is a powered industrial truck used to lift and transport materials. The modern forklift was developed in the 1920s by various companies including the transmission manufacturing company Clark and the hoist company Yale & Towne Manufacturing...

 and other materials-handling equipment. Hyster was founded in 1929 as the Willamette-Ersted Company in Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

. The company was purchased in 1989 by NACCO Industries, Inc.

NACCO Industries, Inc.

NACCO Industries, Inc. is a publicly traded holding company, headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, involved in the lift truck, housewares, and mining industries. As of 2007, the company is ranked in the Fortune 1000...

 and became a part of NACCO Materials Handling Group (NMHG) which continues to market products under the Hyster brand name today.

The name "Hyster" allegedly derives from a term commonly used by logging workers in the Pacific Northwest

Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...

at the end of the 19th century. When a load of lumber was ready to be transported, a logger would yell "Hoist 'er!". According to the Hyster Company web page, this term became synonymous with Hyster trucks.

Distribution and support for Hyster products is organized around major world regions: North America and Canada; Latin America; Europe the Middle East & Africa; Asia – Pacific.

Hyster also manufactured a very successful line of Compaction machinery and road rollers including machines for earth compaction, garbage compaction and asphalt compaction. Through the 1960's and 1970's Hyster was a major force in these types of machinery in America and they produced a wide range of models with many successful design concepts. Hyster was eventually absorbed into Bomag America/Compaction America (Now known as HYPAC) and some models including a small articulated rubber tyre roller sold under the Hypac name is an original descendent of the Hyster machine.

Hyster also made a successful line of logging winches and compactor attachments, both of which could be attached to other manufactures machines including Caterpillar.