Combilifts help out in tight spaces for O’Brien Fine Foods

O’Brien Fine Foods is a family run business and a supplier of high quality meat products to the Irish market. Following the construction of a new extension the company replaced its previous fleet of forklifts with a Combi-CB and three pedestrian Combi-WR models to maximise space and to ensure the highest standards of health and safety. 

The move to using walk-behind models wherever possible was a priority for head of procurement Maud Gormley, who chose Combi-WR models to work in the packing station and the raw meat area. “The Combi-WRs enable us to move pallets in very narrow aisles in the safest possible way: the multi position tiller arm allows the operator to stand to the side of the unit to eliminate crush risk and the good visibility gives a clear view of the load and other personnel in the vicinity. A further advantage of pedestrian trucks is the short time – around 4 hours - and lower overheads involved to train our operators.”     

The diesel powered 4t capacity Combi-CB works outside as a versatile machine, handling pallets of packaging and machine parts for the production facility. This compact, counterbalance design 4-way forklift was also the ingenious solution for picking pallets from two high level external first floor storage areas and loading them onto HGVs. Its 8m mast provides adequate lift height to reach the loading bays and telescopic forks enable the pallets to be accessed through an up and over gate. The fork positioner allows the driver to easily adjust the fork width depending on the load and pallet position. Its multidirectional ability and tight turning circle is also invaluable for working alongside one of the bays which is in a very confined space

“The configuration of our factory across various levels is not the most straightforward for materials handling equipment, and the requirement to lift loads weighing up to 1800kgs to 7.7m was a challenge,” said Maude Gormley. “But the Combilifts have more than lived up to our expectations. Combilift provided layouts for the new premises and made sure everything worked smoothly in the new set up.”