John Maguire

A British manufacturer is warning that short product release times could affect the resale values of existing products.

"We are aware of certain products that were launched as recently as three years ago with a lot of marketing collateral behind them that have now been succeeded by newer models," says John Maguire, Narrow Aisle Flexi's sales and marketing director.

"Even in a market when product release times are rapidly shrinking, this, in my opinion, makes no sense," he says.

Maguire explains that since Narrow Aisle introduced the first Flexi articulated forklift in 1990, the company has gone on to develop six articulated forklift types.

"Each model in the range has been designed to offer reliable, safe and efficient operation to cover most industry requirements without resorting to customisation of one product with the risks that this process can present."

He says that when new ranges and highly customised products are rushed to the market, some forklift manufacturers could be undermining the resale value of existing ranges, subsequently increasing the trucks' cost of ownership for forklift fleet operators and rental companies.

"If I was a truck user or rental company who had been sold something that I thought represented the latest technology only for the product to quickly become all but obsolete, I would be very unhappy.

"With any significant capital equipment purchase, [buyers] need to have the reassurance of knowing that the product [they are] buying is not going to be two or three models out of date when the time comes for it to be re-sold ... Quite simply, changing a forklift model too quickly destroys the product's used equipment value."

Narrow Aisle has manufactured very narrow aisle equipment for over 30 years. It claims that the fourth-generation Flexi articulated forklift model, the Flexi G4 introduced in 2007, is the most popular articulated truck in Europe.