Kevin Ryan, managing director of Easy Truck Material Handling.

Alcester-based forklift dealer Easy Truck Material Handling has joined the Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA) as a full member.

Established in 2009 by husband-and-wife team Kevin and Georgina Ryan, Easy Truck Material Handling says it emphasised customer care to grow its business and to defy the recession. It services materials handling equipment across the Midlands and Warwickshire.

Managing director Kevin Ryan says: "By working to the FLTA's high standards and recommendations since day one, our business has gone from strength to strength."

Ryan has adopted and adhered to the FLTA code of practice as his own code of practice.

Membership of the FLTA requires that companies meet strict quality requirements. FLTA members are required to have a good reputation and financial security and sign up to a stringent code of practice covering business conduct, customer service and safety. As such, the FLTA says its members' badge is recognised in the UK as a seal of professionalism. The association works actively to raise standards in the forklift industry.

In its first four years of trading, growing demands for its services in the region has allowed Easy Truck Material Handling to expand - more than quadrupling its turnover, as well as its staffing levels.

"Today, we employ eight people and last July we were appointed [as an] official CESAB dealer. Full membership was clearly the next step in building upon the strong company we've built," Ryan says. Easy Truck supplies the Cesab product range, as well as servicing and spare parts in Birmingham, Worcester, Dudley, Stourbridge, Kidderminster and Cheltenham.

Easy Truck Material Handling's next goal is achieving ISO9001 certification - international recognition of the company's excellent customer service. Ryan adds: "We now have access to the FLTA's wealth of online guidance - including guidelines on how to achieve that very ISO."

The Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA) is Europe's largest representative body for dealers, suppliers and manufacturers of forklifts and associated equipment. Since 1972, the FLTA has been improving standards and safety in the materials handling industry, with initiatives including National Fork Lift Safety Week, the FLTA Awards for Excellence, and a national apprenticeship. The Safe User Group encourages safety among members' customers.