A TP20acH platform pallet truck wearing the Pepsi Max-branded design cover.

A Finnish beverage supplier now has Rocla trucks parading its brands.

Rocla Oyj has supplied Finnish beverage supplier Hartwall Ltd with its recently launched TP20acH platform pallet trucks wearing "changeable design covers".

The new option enables customers to custom label forklifts with their own brands. Hartwall's beverage brands, Lapin Kulta, Forsters, Pepsi Max and Karjala, are now visible on the pallet trucks.

Other Hartwall brands, like Upcider, Hartwall Jaffa and Hartwall Novelle, would get their own covers in future, Rocla design manager Petteri Masalin said.

"The idea of these design covers (applied to the trucks with adhesive labelling material) is to integrate the look of the trucks with the customer's brand image," Masalin said. "The changeable covers are very practical because ones battered in operation can easily be replaced with new.

"It is a trend that companies hire more industrial designers. Before, industrial design was like adding icing to a ready-made cake," he said.

Rocla's design knowledge was recognised at the Fennia Prize competition in 2005 (Forkliftaction.com News #193).

Hartwall technical development manager Jari Kangas said:
"Now our brand quality is communicated through the equipment used in our production premises."

Rocla maintains Hartwall's automated guided vehicles, warehouse trucks and counterbalanced forklifts.