New director appointments in the UK forklift industry will put pressure on companies with ageing boardrooms, a Plimsoll Publishing study says.

The study says there have been 228 new director-level appointments in the last 18 months in an industry with a total of 796 directors.

David Pattison, Plimsoll's senior analyst, said it was important to note "not just the companies you do business with but the decision makers of the companies.

"We all know that companies don't do business with companies. People do business with people.

"But the people are changing and firms will be caught out and lose business simply because they took a customer, competitor or supplier for granted on the basis of an older management style," he said.

The Plimsoll study investigated companies' financial performances and offers views on the challenges new directors faced.

For 62 new directors, the challenge was to keep the company afloat. For 166, it was to deliver industry-leading performance.

"The reasons for new appointments are varied. Some have been taken on with the objective of finding a company buyer. Others look like they have been appointed to see through a management buyout," Pattison said.

According to the report, the average salary of a director in the forklift industry was GBP49,733 (USD97,099) last year. Directors' fees increased on average one per cent and top earners could see their pay increase to more than GBP178,000 (USD347,527). The tenure of a forklift industry director was more than four years, compared to the UK average of about seven years.

Forkliftaction.com News readers can obtain the full report for GBP300/USD585.72 (a discount of GBP50/USD97.62) by quoting the code PR02 when ordering at www.plimsoll.co.uk.