MANAGING director Roy Fewster always had an ambition to run his own company.

He achieved his aim last year when he bought forklift truck firm Swire Materials Handling in a management buy-in. The £20 million deal was backed by the Bank of Scotland and many projects are now in hand to improve the business which has been re-named SMH Ltd.

The buy-in gave Mr Fewster the chance to return to the forklift truck industry. He was MD of Lex Harvey in the mid-1990s before joining Lex Vehicle Leasing in Marlow as MD for three years.

"I took the decision that I wanted to come back into forklift trucks and had an ambition to run a company," said the 44-year-old.

Mr Fewster approached the owners of the privately-owned company which was not up for sale at the time.

"I was able to bring some added value to the already successful business and the owners made the decision to sell it. The deal was completed in July 2000," he said.

The company has its head office in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, and its finance arm at Buckingham Place, High Wycombe.

SMH operates from five depots in Tannery Road, High Wycombe, Dewsbury, Aberdeen, East Kilbride and Burton-on-Trent, employing a total workforce of 130.

It currently runs a mixed fleet of 1,000 lift-trucks on contract hire and has a further 700 in its short-term fleet. A 55-strong network of service engineers maintains the lift trucks on a national basis for high-profile customers, including Magnet and Comet.

Mr Fewster said: "SMH owns its entire fleet so we can enter into lease agreements direct with customers without the involvement of a finance house. Shortly we will offer additional finance options such as hire purchase and finance lease. This is just one of the benefits of our relationship with the Bank of Scotland.

"Because we are independent and not linked to one manufacturer we can choose the best truck for the job."

He has ambitious plans for the future growth of SMH. He has recruited a new management team from people he has known over a number of years, including Anthony Wortley as his marketing manager and Gary Wild as the service director responsible for the SMH depot network and customer service. Graham Farquhar is commercial director.

"We are a group of people with a common interest to build on the success of Swire, taking the business through its next stage of development," said Mr Fewster.

"It is very exciting. It is refreshing not to have a corporate political area to deal with."

Among the projects in hand are the integration of the four businesses into one centralised organisation, rebranding the business to create a service industry which he said just happens to be in forklift trucks, increasing the focus on customer relations and upgrading the IT systems.

"There are some good people in the business and they are excited by the changes," said Mr Fewster.