Forklift businesses in St Louis, Missouri and South Bend, Indiana with compelling scenarios have received the personal touch from journalists in recent days.

Steve Giegerich's 20 April article in the Post-Dispatch tells how Linda Barbaglia and her two adult daughters, Melinda Barbaglia and Teresa Pippen, successfully run C&B Lift Truck Service Inc in an industrial portion of the Ellendale neighbourhood in St Louis.

Linda's husband, Charlie, founded the business in 1974 and ran it until his death in 2005. How the women stepped into a void at the business forms the heart of Giegerich's article.

With 36 years in the market, C&B Lift Truck Service now describes itself as a "women-owned business enterprise certified with the state of Missouri and a family-owned business serving St Louis, St Charles, Wentzville, across the river in Illinois and additional surrounding areas".

Meanwhile, a South Bend group of employees from a closed materials handling equipment business found a way to establish their own independent forklift sales and service business.

Gene Stowe in a 22 April article in the Tribune describes challenges on their path to the creation of a successful business plan for CLM Forklifts Inc in South Bend.

With the initials standing for Clarklift of Michiana Inc, CLM was established in 2009 as "a new venture offering customers 'one stop shopping' for all their forklift and materials handling needs", says the firm's website.

Stowe quotes president Gay Chevillet on the business development, consultation support and training assistance that CLM received from a small business centre with a connection to the state's Indiana Economic Development Corp in Indianapolis.