Ikea Australia relies on Toyota Material Handling forklift equipment for around-the-clock operations at its national distribution centre and a retail megastore.

The iconic furniture company recently expanded its relationship with Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA) with a new two-year service agreement to maintain 60 battery electric forklifts, turret trucks and reach trucks.

Long-term TMHA customer Ikea operates Toyota forklifts throughout its national distribution centre in Moorebank, NSW and its megastore at Rhodes, NSW.

A new Sydney store at Tempe will also use THMA equipment.

Ikea uses a wide range of Toyota forklifts, including 7FBE three-wheel counter-balance forklifts, four special BT turret trucks, pallet movers and Raymond reach trucks.

The Moorebank distribution centre operates 24 hours a day. It has a special wire-guidance system for the turret trucks, specially designed and installed by TMHA.

Ikea Moorebank Distribution Centre Warehouse Manager Stewart Danswan describes the turret trucks as highly specialised machines, with only a handful of businesses in the country using them.

TMHA (Sydney) technician Shaun Xerri, national winner of the Toyota Skills Competition for BT forklifts, is on site virtually full-time.

"Shaun is a dedicated technician who is highly skilled and specially trained to service our forklifts," Danswan says. "He is quite proactive and will regularly visit the distribution centre just to check if the forklifts are functioning normally.

"Fortunately for us, Shaun's technical experience allows him to identify problems quickly and rectify them with very little downtime.

"We have a very good relationship with TMHA and the overall service levels are quite dependable and responsive," Danswan says.

"As a consequence we have little problem planning our operation to run at maximum capacity - with the knowledge that we can rely on our forklifts."