A Bendi articulated forklift

Translift Bendi, the manufacturer of the Bendi articulated forklift, claims it will nearly outsell UK's most popular reach truck brands this year, despite costing significantly more.

Articulated forklifts are compact trucks used for loading and unloading outdoors and pallet moving in very narrow aisle warehouses. Because they do the work of a reach truck and counterbalanced forklift, manufacturers claim they save forklift and warehouse space costs.

Translift Bendi says it will expand its Redditch plant by 75% this northern hemisphere autumn to cope with increased demand.

In 2006/07, sales of the Bendi doubled. A spokesperson says the overall market size for reach trucks and articulated forklifts in the UK is about 3,000 units a year. He claims about 700 Bendis are sold annually - compared to 800 to 900 reach trucks by Bendi's competitors.

Managing director Simon Brown says the articulated truck market has grown steadily year on year.

"Our message is getting across that the Bendi is the cheapest way to store pallets in standard pallet racking when the entire warehouse is concerned.

"The Bendi has often shown payback within 24 months," Brown boasts.

Translift Bendi says it is the articulated forklift pioneer in Britain, having introduced the truck about 25 years ago.

The company says competitors initially scorned the truck, saying it was a "Heath Robinson" contraption that wouldn't take off. (William Heath Robinson is a British cartoonist who died in London in 1944. The Tatler regularly published his cartoons of crazy inventions.)

Bendi's Redditch plant has surpassed 7,000 trucks and Europe's leading home improvement retailer, B&Q, has over 600 Bendis in their UK stores.

New Bendi markets are opening up in Australia, France, Germany, the Czech Republic and South Africa, according to a Translift Bendi statement.

Brown is confident of the company's expansion plans:
"The new, extended facility at Redditch, the only articulated forklift assembly line plant in the UK, will be able to produce 120 Bendi trucks a month by the end of 2008 and if growth continues, we may be looking to implement an additional expansion plan already mapped out."