The sideloaders will handle awkward loads at Haldane Fisher's headquarters.

Briggs Equipment has secured a contract with Northern Ireland builders' merchant Haldane Fisher to more than double the company's fleet of Irion sideloader trucks.

Having acquired former competitor Barloworld Handling this year, Briggs is supplying five new sideloaders to Haldane Fisher's materials handling fleet, which Barloworld supported for over 20 years (Forkliftaction.com News #580).

Haldane Fisher transport manager Colin Morrison says: "They're the best sideloaders we've had in the time I've been with the company. And we are confident that Briggs Equipment, and its team in Newtownabbey, will be working hard with us on the servicing and maintenance aspect of the deal as we continue to grow our business over the coming years."

The sideloaders will handle awkward and heavy loads like roof trusses, timber and building materials at Haldane Fisher's headquarters in Newry, County Down. Besides moving materials around the Haldane Fisher yard, the trucks will also load products onto trailers to deliver to its UK customers.

If a part is unavailable or a truck cannot be fixed within 24 hours, Briggs will supply standby trucks from its short-term hire fleet, based at the company's regional support centre in County Antrim.

Briggs' Northern Ireland sales manager, Colin McNeely, says: "Our mobile service technicians are on site at Haldane Fisher each day, ensuring that the sideloaders and forklifts are performing to the required standard."

Haldane Fisher operates a total of 23 pieces of materials handling equipment, consisting of the sideloaders, Combi electric trucks, and Hyster counterbalance and reach trucks. Each of the new trucks will be operating for about 2,000 hours annually.

Briggs is the national distributor of Hyster and Yale forklifts in the UK and also supplies specialist equipment like sideloaders.

The contract's value exceeds GBP500,000 (USD804,967).