Aschaffenburg, 25 May 2007 - Linde Material Handling has been manufacturing forklift trucks at its Aschaffenburg plant since 1958. The 500,000th vehicle recently rolled off the assembly line at one of the most modern truck plants in the world. Georg Silbermann, Managing Director Sales and Marketing at Linde Material Handling, presented the jubilee vehicle - a H35 T LPG truck with 3.5 tons lifting capacity - to Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetränke AG, represented by Hartmut Kleine-Doepke, fleet manager for the Ruhr-Westphalia region and Meinhard Maurer, fleet manager for the southern Bavaria region. Drinks manufacturer Coca Cola has been a customer for more than 20 years and currently uses over 350 Linde forklift trucks and warehouse vehicles. 
　　Looking back: Truck manufacturing at Aschaffenburg has its origins in entrepreneurial boldness and vision. At the end of the 1960s, in the space of a few weeks, Linde discontinued its previous product range of tractors and diesel engines in order to concentrate entirely on manufacturing forklift trucks and hydraulic components. The gamble paid off. The initial annual production of several hundred units quickly grew, with capacity extending step by step. Meanwhile, over 30,000 combustion engined and electric counterbalanced forklift trucks leave the plant each year, amounting to around two fifths of all Linde industrial trucks produced in the year 2006.
　　According to the machine manufacturer, which today reached its latest milestone, the success is based on two main factors: As the only company in the industry concerned Linde Material Handling combines its truck manufacturing with the own development and production of hydrostatic and electric drive units under one roof. These conditions give Linde trucks technical advantages such as robustness, comfort, maintenance friendliness and sensitive handling, which have impressed buyers on the market for many years. Once again, Linde was European market leader for counterbalance trucks in 2006. The second success factor is manufacturing expertise that enabled many ideas and innovations to be implemented and still forms to this day the basis for the comparatively high level of vertical integration.
　　Diesel and LPG trucks of the 351 series, with a lifting capacity of 2.0 to 3.5 tons, that were produced in Aschaffenburg from 1984 to 2003 form the largest share of the 500,000 forklift trucks manufactured in Germany. The series was replaced by the even more successful 39x series manufactured from 2002 onwards. In the electric forklift truck sector, the 335 series with a lifting capacity of 1.6. to 2.0 tons contributed most to the recent production record for counterbalance trucks.
　　Although it has taken almost fifty years for the first half million vehicles to be produced at the Aschaffenburg plant, the second half is expected to be completed much quicker. According to current development and plans, it could take less than ten years.