More than four decades have passed since Henning Hoj read a trade-publication article that changed his business life.
    At the time, the young Danish immigrant had a small business supplying overhead bridge cranes for construction jobs that required some heavy lifting. He'd scarcely given forklifts a thought until an article in a materials-handling magazine described how the military employed the machines to haul around heavy metal plates used to build a temporary airstrip.
    Impressed, Hoj bought three forklifts in 1968 and started renting them out.
    "I was very hungry and I had to buy some food - and chose forklifts. I've been hungry ever since," joked Hoj, whose business, Hoj Forklift Systems, actually has expanded significantly in the past 40 years.
    Besides its primary operations at 4645 S. 400 West in Murray, the company also has a branch, Idaho Material & Handling, in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Hoj employs 153 people at the two sites and does $40 million to $50 million in business annually, said service manager Russ Abbott.
    Hoj forklifts were used extensively during preparations for the 2002 Winter Olympics, rented to the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for its warehouses and to sponsors and television broadcasters who needed to unload equipment. Post-Olympics, forklift manufacturer Nissan has cited Hoj as one of the top nine distributors in the United States three times in the past five years.
    The demand for forklifts is on the rise, with the Salt Lake Valley's booming economy begetting more and more giant warehouses in industrial parks off of Interstates 15 and 80, as well as State Road 201.
    "They're vital to our business. We wouldn't be able to operate without them," said Sita Jasper, owner of Quality Distribution Inc., whose two warehouses in Salt Lake City are used by numerous companies for temporary storage of a variety of products, including foodstuffs.
    Added David Pettit of American Distribution Centers Inc., which provides storage space in a west Salt Lake City warehouse, as well as freight services when that material needs to be moved: "The advent of forklifts in the 1940s or '50s changed the way logistic service companies do business."
    Forklifts essentially function in the same way they did back then. The two steel prongs that usually stick 42 inches to 48 inches out in front can be used to lift wooden pallets weighed down with any type of product and move them elsewhere. Often that is between a warehouse storage rack and a semitractor trailer that will haul the goods wherever they are wanted.
    The forklift operator can manipulate the lift to go up and down, tilt down or back and, in some cases, to slide several feet forward.
    In recent years, said Hoj sales manager Brian Keeran, evolving technology has enabled forklifts to reach higher than ever and to move this way and that, even turning around completely in tight spaces. Some forklifts follow wires, enabling them to squeeze through tight aisles without bumping into racks only a millimeter or two on either side.
    There are versions in which the operator stands in the back. In others, the operator sits down. Some use fuel, others are powered by electric batteries, particularly those used in freezers to avoid engine heat and emissions. On some units, the fork portion can twist to the left or the right, even as the operator's cab points forward.
    "Some of them, you wonder how in the world they can stack pallets 25 to 30 feet high," Abbott mused. "Some of our narrow-aisle forklifts have lasers so the operator can see where the forks are in relation to where the pallet is way overhead."
    With such variability, prices for a new unit range from $4,500 to $80,000. Because forklifts tend to be so sturdy, Keeran said, "if I get 50 calls per week for forklifts, 45 want used ones. . . . You make money in this business in parts, service and rentals."
    Service manager Abbott has mechanics available around the clock to handle emergencies and a parts inventory worth roughly $1 million. "The main thing that sets us apart is our service," said Abbott, who has worked for Hoj since 1989. "We don't have a lot of employee turnover, so [our customers] feel comfortable with our people."
    That reputation helps Keeran make sales. "I can sell a company its first forklift," he said, " but I can't sell them a third or fourth if we don't take care of them."