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Australia’s longest continually operating brewery has switched exclusively to Toyota 7-Series forklifts for its long term rental fleet.
Cascade Brewery Co, based in South Hobart, has a fleet of 2.5 tonne payload Toyota 7FG25 forklifts.
The company recently commissioned its ninth Toyota 7FG25 dual-fuel unit.
There are five machines at the brewery and another four at Cascade Beverage Co, located adjacent to the brewery.
Cascade’s packing team leader, Gary Barnes, headed the team that selected the Toyota machines and negotiated the supply contract.
He said Cascade chose Toyota as its sole forklift supplier in 1995 based on safety features, machine specification, cost-effectiveness, and first class customer support and service from Tasmanian distributor FRM Toyota.
"The Toyota 7-Series is an impressive and cost-effective machine," he said.
"Prior to 1995 we had a mixed fleet of machines - but none of the other brands came near the new Toyota."
The 7-Series’ stability control (Toyota’s System of Active Stability) was an important factor.
Toyota's world-first SAS system monitors key operations of the forklift, detecting and counteracting instability to lower the risk of forklift rollover, and helps provide for a safer work environment.
"We stack and handle some high loads both in the brewery and at Cascade Beverage Co," Mr Barnes said.
"The brewery forklifts are handling pallets of empty bottles that are some 2.5 metres high, and you need to be able to lift and move those safely and easily in a confined area."
The forklifts also handle pallets of empty aluminium cans, 18 cans high, as well as stacking finished goods such as beer, fruit juice and cider.
Cascade Brewery Company and Beverage Company manufactures and packs beer, soft drinks, juices and cider for local and interstate markets.
It has been brewing beer at the Cascade site at South Hobart since 1824.
Gary Barnes said forklift service company FRM Toyota assisted in training Cascade employees to help them understand the safety issues of forklift use.
"Most people on site have a forklift licence, and we encourage them to move everything possible with a forklift, not manually," he said.
Toyota offers a comprehensive range of internal combustion and battery electric forklift trucks, available from a compact 0.7 up to a powerful 16 tonnes.
Its leading edge range of rider-forklifts have been the Australian market leader for the past 14 consecutive years.
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