Translift Bendi - born, bred & built in Britain

With worldwide orders flooding in and innovative new products now in operation (with more in the pipeline), 2012 promises to be a record breaking year for Bendi, the largest UK manufacturer of articulated forklifts and a global market leader

Having worked tirelessly over the past couple of years to develop an International Distributor Network of companies who share the same passion and commitment as the team in the UK, Bendi have enjoyed a huge increase in global sales. Over 30% of the company's order book now comes from overseas and is further proof that "Made in Britain" still carries some weight.

The ongoing success of the British company, and its predicted expansion over the next 12 months is a massive boost for the Midlands and the UK manufacturing industry as a whole with significant investment in people and machinery already in place at the company's production plant in Redditch, West Midlands.

"Like many manufacturers we have used the Eastern Europe and Asian manufacturing route to great success over recent years," explains Paul Overfield, Bendi Operations Director. "High local manufacturing costs and an incredibly fast growing market has meant we have had to source engineering partners with the right ability and the right cost base. However, the only way forward for our industry and our country is to bring it all back home. Britain now has a competitive cost base, all the required skills and (hopefully) a growing focus from the UK government to assist." That is why for the past five years, Translift Bendi has been focused on growing its UK manufacturing base to be capable of building all of its products for sale worldwide. That effort and success has paid dividends in Bendi's sales with customers realising that they are dealing with a true manufacturing base.

A resurgence in UK manufacturing has no doubt led to some suppliers jumping on the bandwagon with claims of "British Made" and indeed a quirk of the CE marking legislation means that suppliers placing the equipment on to the market in the EU (for its first intended use) are legally bound to state themselves as "The Manufacturer", but in truth there are very few British owned companies making their trucks here in Britain from raw steel to finished truck. As one of the true manufacturers, Bendi stands out as one of the biggest to totally build using UK skill and labour.

"If you are going to be a true UK manufacturer you need to be cutting the steel, bending, fabricating, machining, folding, painting, basically processing the steel and components to become a truck rather than simply adding a data plate to a chassis rolling out of a container," comments Overfield. "This flexibility to react to customers' needs rather than pipeline other manufacturers' products, who are remote from the customer, means that we have kept ahead of the competition and this is reflected in the sales volume, giving the customer an advantage when choosing Bendi." Already with a highly skilled and dedicated workforce in the factory, Bendi have recruited new people as well as investing heavily in existing buildings & machinery and have acquired another 10,000 sq ft for the planned growth, as well as a brand new UK Parts Centre.

Overfield concluded: "Our careful but ambitious approach to the global marketplace has helped us reach a very exciting place whereby we are not only building our own business but helping to grow the UK economy through increasing manufacturing, and predominately for export - the key to national growth."