Parfetts, an employee-owned cash and carry wholesaler, has upgraded the materials handling equipment across its seven depots with the introduction of new reach trucks, counterbalance trucks and powered pallet trucks from the Toyota range.

Covering the East and West Midlands, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, the North East and North West, Parfetts offers over 9,000 product lines. 

While a significant proportion of the company’s clients still prefer to visit Parfetts’ depots in person in the traditional ‘cash and carry’ business model way, customers, increasingly, choose to place their orders online. Parfetts operates an online next-day delivery service.

To help maintain the efficiency of its free delivery service and reduce the risk of delivery personnel suffering strain-related injuries during their daily routine, Parfetts has equipped each wagon in its transport fleet with BT Tyro LHE130 powered pallet trucks.

Prior to the arrival of the powered pallet trucks, Parfetts’ delivery personnel had used manual or ‘pump’ trucks. However, the company has seen a clear increase in the number of palletised loads passing through its downstream supply chain while the use of roll cages is in decline.

Stefan Dremza, Parfetts’ store manager, comments: “Back strains and other musculoskeletal disorders brought on by manual handling tasks are among the main causes of staff absenteeism in the UK, so it makes sense to reduce or, ideally, eliminate manual handling, wherever possible. 

 “Powered pallet trucks are considerably less tiring to work with than ‘pump’ trucks and we have been able to cut out a lot of the hard physical work that delivering to our retailer customers involves simply and highly cost-effectively by introducing the Tyro powered pallet trucks.”

In addition, reach and counterbalance trucks have been supplied for operation within Parfetts’ depots. The reach trucks are Toyota RRE160B models. With a lift height of 8.5 m, these highly productive trucks feature fingertip control levers for all fork movements and electronic steering for precise driving.

The counterbalance trucks specified are Toyota Traigo three-wheel electric-powered models. The Traigo’s 1.5 T load capacity and tight turning radius make it the ideal truck for operation within Parfetts’ depots.