While the UniCarriers name has only been around a short while, the story of our company is, in reality, the history of three companies that span more than 100 years. Barrett Industrial Trucks was founded in 1914, and was a pioneer in bringing a new generation of electric powered equipment to the material handling market.TCM founded the forklift manufacturing industry in Japan, producing the first ever Japan-made forklift in 1949. Nissan Forklift began operations in 1957. With its acquisition of Barrett in 1988, it became the first Japanese manufacturer of all five classes of material handling equipment in the U.S.