Well, regarded forklift truck manufacturer Flexi Trucks have announced their sales figures for this year and they have well exceeded historical expectations. The flexible forklift truck was incredibly popular during 2015 and reached an all-time high according to the company’s founder Peter Wooldridge who had this to say about the record-breaking figures.
“The increase in volume sales that we experienced in 2015 fully justifies the investment that we made in the development of our UK production site in 2014. We extended our UK plant by 40% in 2013 and, such has been the acceleration in demand for products in the Flexi range, this additional capacity is fully now utilised.”
Finding reasons for the increased sales
Another reason for the sudden boom in sales can be directly attributed to the lack of available warehouse space. As ever, space is at a real premium and it’s proving harder and harder to expand already large warehousing spaces. This has resulted in savvy warehouse managers and business owners re-configuring their available space in a way that provides more opportunities for storage and mobilisation.
This increased need for space and resources positions Flexi trucks at the top of the market. The forklifts are infamous for their ability to work in the smallest of warehouse environments. Ferrying around in minimised spaces and reaching previously unobtainable objects is their modus operandi.
Space is at an absolute premium
This belief is echoed by Flexi Trucks Commercial Director John Maguire who had this to say about the recent phenomenon, “The space-saving benefits that Flexi’s provide are increasing, well known and have been proved in the third-party logistics industry over many years and the fact that Flexi technology enables far more efficient use of the available storage cube makes the trucks now particularly attractive to those companies that need to optimise the storage space available to them within their existing buildings.”
What of the future?
The company plans to increase its output in 2016 and will continue to utilise its brand new manufacturing facilities as well as push their forklift trucks relatively unusual attributes. Demand for narrow-aisle trucks is at an all-time high and reflects current trends in both the logistics and retail sectors. As space becomes more valuable, businesses will need to adapt. This can be achieved through smart panning and re-configuring of already existing warehouse space and forklift truck fleets.
As long as warehouse managers continue to invest in new ways to counter these issues, we should eventually see this trend become a permanent one. The two are correlated and Flexi Trucks have more than every right to be elated with their excellent 2015.