David Pattison

One in three UK forklift companies is making a loss, according to a new forklift study.

The study's author, David Pattison, distinguishes between the 146 loss-making companies that "have simply had a bad year" and the ones that are "burying their heads in the sand".

"Increasingly, we are seeing companies making a loss for the first time in their history and I think they can rightly claim they are victims of difficult trading conditions," Pattison says.

He adds that a refocus on profitability would ensure that this is an isolated occurrence for those companies: one they can look back on and say "the year the recession forced us into loss".

However, Pattison says there is "a band of serial loss-makers" in the UK forklift market.

"Seventy companies are making a loss for the second, even third year running. These companies are either blatantly undercutting the rest of the market to enhance or maintain marketshare or, more likely, have delayed making the painful decision more prudent companies have recently made," he explains.

Pattison says he salutes management teams that have made difficult and unpopular decisions.

"They have cut their cloth according to the market conditions and, as a result, are more stable for it. Those failing to do so are running out of time and cash," he says, predicting that there will be a number of failing forklift companies in the coming months.

"Without a big increase in demand, they cannot support their pricing strategy for much longer."

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