Jungheinrich has supplied a fleet of over 240 trucks from its extensive forklift product portfolio to Sainsbury's Hams Hall distribution centre (DC). The contract was fulfilled over two phases with some 152 trucks delivered earlier this summer and a further 89 trucks becoming operational at the facility in October 2008.

Sainsbury's Hams Hall forklift fleet now includes Jungheinrich reach trucks, low level order pickers, ride-on pallet trucks and models from Jungheinrich's new VFG range of hydrostatic engine counterbalance trucks. The trucks have been provided on contract hire and, as part of the package, Jungheinrich service engineers will be permanently based at the Hams Hall DC to ensure that truck uptime is maximised.

Opened in 2001, the 690,000 sq ft Hams Hall DC provides both ambient and chilled storage and serves Sainsbury's stores throughout the West Midlands.

Jungheinrich now supplies circa 25 per cent of all of the forklift trucks used by Sainsbury's within its UK logistics operation and Jungheinrich truck fleets operate at Sainsbury's distribution centres at Tamworth and St Albans. In June of this year, Jungheinrich supplied a fleet of over 115 trucks to Sainsbury's Tamworth DC.

Jungheinrich's Corporate Accounts Manager, Vernon Hill, said: "As recently as three and a half years ago Jungheinrich was doing no business at all with Sainsbury's, so our growing relationship with the company is particularly pleasing. Sainsbury's is obviously one of the UK's leading retailers and the efficiency of the company's logistics operation is fundamental to its ongoing success and the fact Jungheinrich forklifts are at the heart of Sainsbury's logistics operation is testament to the quality of our products and the service support that we offer."

Derek Boghurst, Sainsbury's Material Handling Manager, commented: "I have used Jungheinrich trucks previously so had no hesitation in working with them in Sainsbury's. However, it's not just the quality of the trucks that convinced us to work with Jungheinrich. We require suppliers who work in partnership with us and have the flexibility to adapt to our ever changing demands and Jungheinrich were able to demonstrate that they had the culture, values and commitment to customer service to deliver the kind of results that we are looking for."