Despite challenging times for the UK forklift industry, Clark dealer Forktruck Solutions made a profit for fiscal 2009 and has just created new management positions.

The company that also represents Pimespo and Cesab, and maintains or repairs any make of capital equipment, has just taken on a general manager, John Hanshaw.

Forktruck Solutions managing director Simon Smith says the company did not previously have a general manager.

"John was taken on to expand the business [and] ultimately oversee numerous Forktruck Solutions depots," Smith says.

Hanshaw has 28 years of materials handling experience and was most recently in the senior management of a forklift manufacturing company.

Hanshaw says his mission is to "deliver a quality, cost-effective, no-nonsense service with unrivalled after-sales care".

Also new on the scene is Mike Goodliffe, in the newly created role of business development manager. Goodliffe has 23 years' experience in the industry and was previously a service manager for a Japanese forklift manufacturer.

Another newcomer is Mike Atchison, the company's new national accounts manager. Atchison started as an apprentice and has been in the industry for over 25 years.

Asked if the company had shed jobs because of the global recession, Hanshaw confirms that "redundancies were reluctantly made" due to "an ambitious restructure".

He is silent on the number of redundancies, but says that Forktruck Solutions recently secured a contract to supply Clark products to "a large American manufacturing group", valued at over GBP300,000 (USD479,500).

"We made [a] profit as predicted [for fiscal] 2009 and now we are on target for our latest 2010 forecasts," Hanshaw adds.

Company founder Simon Smith told Materials Handling World in March that Forktruck is targeting a turnover of GBP5 million (USD7,993,893) by 2012 and GBP10 million (USD15,988,757) in 2015. According to the magazine, the company has grown quickly since it was established a decade ago, almost doubling its turnover year-on-year.

The latest Plimsoll study on the UK forklift industry says one in three companies is making a loss. The study's author David Pattison says 146 of the 475 companies studied are in the red, some for the first time in their history (Forkliftaction.com News #426).