The most powerful telescopic handler of the Merlo range turned out to be vital in the largest sawmill in the Czech Republic.

With almost two million hectares devoted to forestry, the Czech Republic ranks sixth in Europe for timber production, and Chanovice is one of the main centres for timber processing.

This is the seat of Haas Fertigbau, one of the most important sawmills in the country belonging to the Haas Group, a European leader in this sector with 30 manufacturing plants and over 5,500 employees.

The pace of work of this sawmill is really intense to meet the ever increasing demand for timber planks. 2,800 cubic metres of logs are cut every day, from which over 1,400 cubic metres of planks are obtained.

Company supervisor Jiří Korec has long searched for the most suitable machine to handle this huge volume of material. “After using a front loader with a plastic edge basket for years, we tried a Panoramic P 80.9 HM and we were fascinated by its performance. This is why we decided to buy a Merlo telescopic handler”. Cime s.r.o, Merlo dealer for the Czech Republic since 1996, provided technical support, and finally a Panoramic P 101.10 HM was chosen: with a 10-tonnes load capacity and a 10-metre lift height, it best suited the needs of Haas Fertigbau.

One year has already gone by since the purchase of this handler, and both Jiří Korec and Jiří Dlouhy, the operator who uses it every day, are really satisfied with the choice they made. “Timber can be handled at significant heights, so that we can have higher piles of logs and planks than before. This leads to significant time saving and to a better exploitation of the storage area”.

“The operating comfort of the P 101.10 HM really comes trumps”, says Jiří Dlouhy, “This handler works 16 hours a day, and handles over 360 tons of timber every day. The comfort of the cab and the efficiency of the air conditioning system relieve the fatigue from sitting in the cab for several hours in any weather”.