11 January 2010

Australia’s leading wine exporter has commissioned the first large-capacity Toyota forklift with a 20-40 container handler.

Casella Wines, based at Yenda, near Griffith in rural NSW, commissioned the new 15-tonne payload Toyota 4-FD150 forklift in late September.  

It has a Bolzoni Auramo side-lift attachment to lift 20 and 40-foot containers.  Casella Wines purchasing officer, David Bastianon, says the company commissioned the new Toyota forklift to increase safety and efficiency.  

“We ship an average of 50 containers of wine per day, mainly 20ft containers,” he says.   “The new Toyota forklift gives greater ease of handling, and the ability to stack empty containers three-high – compared with the two-high stacking ability of the previous eight-tonne payload Toyota forklift.”

Each container when loaded holds 1100 cartons or about 10,000 litres of wine, for a total daily output of approximately 2.5 million litres from Casella Wines.

It has one of the fastest wine bottling lines in the world, capable of processing 36,000 bottles per hour.  

Casella Wines has continued to expand its Toyota fleet as wine production increases.  

The new Toyota 4-FD150 takes the company’s material handling fleet to nearly 80 Toyota forklifts, of which 95 per cent are 2.5-tonne payload Toyota FG25 models.  

The company’s first Toyota order was three forklifts, and by 2004 it had 34 Toyota forklifts. 

“The new Toyota forklift is performing well,” David Bastianon says.   “We continue to buy Toyota forklifts based on their safety and reliability, backed by the service from Toyota Material Handling (NSW) and their local (Griffith) agent, Liftek.  

“The Toyota forklifts here at Yenda are used throughout whole wine-making, bottling and shipping process. We’re just gearing up the winery and the forklift fleet now for vintage, with the first grapes expected in mid January.”  

Casella Wines is Australia’s largest exporter of wine to the United States. Its [yellow tail] brand is the most powerful family-owned wine brand in Australia and the fourth most-significant wine brand globally, according to independent UK consultancy Intangible Business in its report; The Power 100.  

The company was this year awarded New World Wine Producer of the Year at the highly influential MUNDUSvini wine competition in Germany – a competition that attracted over 5726 wine samples from over 44 countries.  

The Toyota 4-FD150 is part of Toyota’s extensive range of large forklift trucks, suitable for stevedoring, logistics, steel and timber yards, and mining applications.  

There are 11 diesel-powered models from 10 to 24-tonnes payload.