This week’s #madeinsandwell Monday star is Narrow Aisle Ltd, a Tipton manufacturer that has been making specialist space-saving forklift trucks for over forty years.

Founded in Bilston in 1976, Narrow Aisle featured on the BBC the following year when its Rotareach Lateral Stacker was introduced on Tomorrow’s World. Ten years later, the company moved to its current site on Great Western Way in Great Bridge.

Since then Narrow Aisle has continue to develop and launch unique products. In the 1990s the company pioneered the Flexi articulated truck, which has gone on to become the most popular articulated warehouse truck around the world. In 2004 the Flexi design won an ‘ARCHIE’ for Innovation and Design at the Fork Lift Truck Association Awards, and in 2005 the Flexi won a BMHF Safety Award. Since then, the space-saving product has grown in popularity and is now distributed in over 60 countries globally.

The company recently refurbished its Tipton manufacturing facility, taking on more staff and apprentices, and launched an online spares business. This all contributed to Narrow Aisle coming 28th on our Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies Index for 2019 (link), with a 15.09 per cent growth in turnover.

The business is all set to continue its success in the future. 2019 saw the launch of a major investment strategy to boost output at its Sandwell production site over the next three years. Managing director John Maguire said: “Narrow Aisle Group is a long-established, profitable, asset-rich British manufacturer and exporter, and we are proud to be able to export to worldwide markets from our base here in Sandwell.”

#madeinsandwell Monday is a celebration of the talent and diversity within our borough. If you’re interested in being considered for a #madeinsandwell Monday profile and having information about your organisation shared on Think Sandwell and through Twitter, read this.