99p Stores has chosen a fleet of 11 Aisle-Master articulated forklifts to work at its new National Distribution Centre in Northampton. The company started with a single location in London in 2001 and has since become a major national brand with 135 outlets across the country. With this figure expecting to rise to 200 by the end of the year 99p Stores recently relocated to the new site which is two and a half times the size of its old HQ.

"With an area of 375,000 sq. ft, this is the largest site for a single price retailer in the UK," says Commercial Director Hussein Lalani. "When choosing equipment for the warehouse the focus was on top quality products for absolute dependability to enable our 24/7 operations to proceed unhindered. We were familiar with the articulated system which operated in our old premises, and after thorough evaluation of all brands on the market we made the unanimous decision to switch to Aisle-Master."

The AC electric powered Aisle-Masters are fully customised to 99p Stores' specifications and were the first batch of trucks to come off the new manufacturing line since the company moved production to its new Monaghan site. The 11.4m mast has an impressive capacity of 700kg to full lift height. Other features include weighing scales and a mast mounted camera with in-cab screen to ease pallet placement and removal in the extremely high top racks.

Mr. Lalani: "We currently have 4,000 to 5,000 pallet movements a day, send out 26,000 pallets a week, and this will rise to 52,000 in the run up to Christmas. We therefore need very robust trucks to handle this rigorous workload with the minimum risk of downtime. A senior colleague had visited the Aisle-Master factory and seen at first hand the quality manufacturing process. Having also tried out an Aisle-Master on a long term rental basis before we moved, I knew this was a machine we could rely on. Driver preference is also very important, and when surveyed, all drivers agreed that it was better than others for smoother operation and mast stability at height."