Martyn Fletcher – Managing Director

“I joined Forkway as Sales Director (as a boy) in 1985 having had a brief spell as a banker and then as a warehouse estate manager and customer of Forkway based in West London.

Changes in the Finance world in that year brought Contract Hire with Maintenance into the forklift market and Forkway, already 20 years old at that time were very well placed to provide excellent support but needed to ‘fly the flag’ more prominently with a trained and professional sales team.

Successful sales in London and The Home Counties expanded with some national accounts and in the early ’90s we added a new outlet in Yorkshire which, like Topsy, just grew and grew.

Since then I have had the pleasure of working with a Board of Directors and many colleagues for more than 20 years achieving considerable and varied corporate and personal success:

I became MD in ’94 and led a successful MBO in ’96 with the help of 3i Group. We acquired Solent Forklift Trucks in ’98 and, as part of our continued expansion relocated the Amersham Head Office. In Yorkshire we moved to purpose built premises in Dewsbury. In 2006 we achieved an amicable uncoupling with 3i.

Earlier, in 2002 I was privileged to be asked to serve on the Board of The Fork Lift Truck Association – FLTA, Europe’s largest representative body, and in 2009 I became Chairman and subsequently President in 2013. In 2015 I was again privileged to join the Board of BITA Academy, which is now F-Tec, being the body that operates the only forklift specific Apprenticeship scheme throughout the UK along with numerous training courses for adult/experienced individuals.

2020 is my 35th year in the company and I can honestly say that customer satisfaction has been and still is our biggest priority. Long-serving, committed and competent staff allow us to offer our customers an unrivalled service which, when coupled with long-term partnerships with world-leading equipment manufacturers keeps us at the forefront of our industry.”

Richard Greaves – Group Director

“I started in FLT sales in 1979 and spent 10 successful years running a territory with responsibility for all new truck sales of the sister product to Yale.

I moved into Sales Management in 1989 and joined Forkway 3 years later as General Manager, North. I am genuinely proud of Forkway’s outstanding growth during the last 23 years, we have a close team in all departments and in my view we have several unique selling points, which stand us in good stead against all-comers in an ever-changing Materials Handling world. Our customer retention is incredible and must be attributed to the World Leading Brands we promote, coupled with a desire to meet and exceed our customer’s expectations.”

Paul Fox – National Sales Director

“2016 is my 27th year in fork truck sales, having started as a young trainee knocking on doors looking for opportunities in West Yorkshire. I worked my way up to cover the West Yorkshire territory quite successfully with many customers becoming friends along the way. In the early 2000’s I made my first move into Sales Management whilst still actively selling to Major Accounts myself. From 2008 I was a Senior Manager with day to day responsibility for the entire Sales Team, Forecasting, Budget, P & L etc; becoming National Sales Director for Forkway in 2012.

I firmly believe there is a difference between Forkway and “other” suppliers. We aim to go the extra mile to “be different” which our customers appreciate by showing tremendous loyalty to Forkway. It’s my job to make sure we continuously improve and that’s what we’ll do!”