After experiencing poor service from their supplier Monaghan Middlebrook Mushrooms, based at Drem near North Berwick, have recently been supplied with three new Hyster H3.00XM, 3000kg capacity LPG powered counterbalance lift trucks by Barloworld Handling who had been their previous supplier. "We have every confidence in the level of service that we receive from Barloworld who have local engineers that ensure any problems are dealt with quickly and efficiently unlike our previous supplier," comments David Warren, Engineering Manager.
Monaghan Middlebrook Mushrooms are Europe's largest producer of mushrooms and have eleven production sites in UK and Ireland with two in England and the site at Drem in Scotland which is a 25-acre site where over 280,000lbs of mushrooms are grown and packed each week.
The trucks are used for a variety of tasks throughout the production process which is a 24 hour seven day a week operation. These tasks range from general yard work to loading and unloading crates of mushrooms and bags of compost. These loads invariably weigh around 1000kg but the larger capacity of the trucks gives extra flexibility should it be needed. Up to six lorries are loaded and eight unloaded each day with the freshly packed mushrooms being shipped to Regional Distribution Centres of the major supermarket chains such as Tesco and Sainsbury's.
As the operation is 24 hour seven days a week downtime is a major concern which was highlighted by their previous poor service. "The Hyster trucks are extremely durable and reliable and we have experienced minimum downtime with them. The engineers have also been very flexible, as all servicing of the trucks is carried out on a Tuesday, as this is our quiet day. All in all we are very happy with the quality of the trucks, the service and the overall package supplied by Barloworld Handling and we look forward to achieving a good ongoing working partnership with them. Also the operators are treating them like old friends!" sums up David Warren, Engineering Manager.
www.barloworld-handling.co.uk