If you had a feeling that we've been seeing a lot more product launches over the past year, the UK Fork Lift Truck Association has provided indirect evidence that innovation seems to have stepped up.
The association notes that it has received a record number of entries from companies across the globe for its Annual Awards for Excellence and has named 25 products in its short list.
The number of new products or updates in the past year must certainly run to three digits as we seem to cover at least one or two each week. And then there was the crop of new products at CeMAT and other shows.
What does this all mean? It must signify that things are looking up for the industry. Clearly, if the market was depressed, manufacturers would be hard-pressed spending on R&D, production retooling and marketing. So the plethora of product must indicate a healthy state of affairs, which is supported by the recent positive financial results and outlooks we have reported.