Pam Oakes at her office in the UK.

As sales director of Nexen Lift Trucks Ltd, Pam Oakes gets a buzz from introducing the growing UK forklift brand to overseas markets.

"[I'm] international and national sales director but, as we are a family-owned company, I get involved in most aspects of the business."

Oakes began in the industry working for a forklift hire company. She was later presented with an award for selling and hiring Coventry Climax forklifts.

"I actually received an award at the old Mechanical Handling Show [the forerunner to IMHX] for being the only female selling these trucks.

"In those days, it was truly a male-dominated industry. The rest, as they say, is history."

Oakes said more women were joining the UK forklift industry today.

"[But] I think a woman has to be of strong character to make headway and be taken seriously."

Oakes has found it satisfying seeing Nexen grow and the company's plans come to fruition.

"Since being involved in Nexen Lift Trucks, my enthusiasm has been renewed.

"We have a really great team. When an initial contact becomes established as a dealer or distributor in a new market, everyone seems to get the same satisfaction I do."

Nexen Lift Trucks, of Lowestoft, UK, was established in 2003. It supplies forklifts up to eight tonnes and will soon introduce larger capacity forklifts and reach trucks. The brand is represented through a network of dealers in the UK and a growing family of dealers in Europe, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and the Balkan States, the Middle East and Australasia.

Oakes, a mother of four, finds it a challenge balancing work and family. Oakes's husband also works at Nexen. "We try not to talk about work all the time at home.

"When I agreed to take this position, I planned to work very hard in this job for 10 years and then, hopefully, be in a position to hand over to someone else.

"However, as we are a family business, I cannot see my husband ever fully retiring.

"I hope I will still be involved alongside him for many years to come," she said.

Oakes is especially interested in reading about new technological developments in Forkliftaction.com's weekly e-newsletter. She said Nexen would invest in hydro static development "in the next few years".

Nexen is exhibiting at IMHX 2007 in Birmingham this week. The UK forklift company unveiled a new range of counterbalanced forklifts at the show. The main feature of the forklifts is a "new ergonomic floating cab".

"The driver's overhead guard assembly, module and seat, steering wheel, pedals and controls are now in a completely isolated cell," a Nexen statement said.