Mitsubishi Grendia lift trucks are sweet for Tate & Lyle

A fleet of five Mitsubishi GRENDIA trucks has been credited with making an 'enormous' difference to Solent Stevedores' cargo handling operations at sugar giant Tate & Lyle's Silvertown facility.

Each month, up to 4,000 tonnes of loose sugar is transported by sea from the sugar manufacturer's East London dock. Solent Stevedores has been responsible for ensuring that its customer's products are moved swiftly and efficiently from warehouse to ship container holds.

Long battery changeovers, truck breakdowns and poor servicing of their previous fleet led Solent Stevedores operations manager Martin Hiscock to put his materials handling supply out to tender. He explains: “We had two key aims. Our new fleet needed to deliver on performance and reliability.”

After careful consideration, he chose to work with the premier Mitsubishi Forklift Trucks dealer for the South East, Bronze Mechanical Handling. “They were able to deliver us with the best products, the best turnarounds as well as the best after sales service.”

Bronze's sales director Chris Slater carefully reviewed the application with the customer. “Silvertown is a site that really sorts out the best trucks from the rest,” says Chris. “Wet, dockside operations can really take their toll on a truck's performance... especially in such a non-stop application as this. To meet the needs of this challenging application, I knew that only GRENDIA would do.”

Chris put together a package of five 3.0 tonne GRENDIA LP gas trucks (FG30N), each fitted with Cascade double pallet handler attachments.