One of Juicy Isle's new electric reach trucks

Tasmania's largest non-alcoholic beverage manufacturer, Juicy Isle, has recently added three new Toyota BT RRE160M electric reach trucks to its fleet. The new BT RRE160M reach trucks replaced three units in a fleet of seven such models. Located in Cambridge Park, outside of Hobart, Juicy Isle is an Australian-owned and -run business producing a wide range of high-quality beverages, including juices made from Tasmanian organic fruit and also locally sourced still and sparkling mineral water products. Juicy Isle general manager Michael Goward says in addition to its beverage production, the business has a sales distribution network covering all of Tasmania and distributing beverages, snacks and confectionary for global FMCG brands. "We service everything from the local corner store to national accounts," says Goward. The Toyota BT Reach forklifts are at the heart of the business' warehouse operations, helping it squeeze out materials handling efficiencies. Juicy Isle's latest warehouse facility was designed with input from Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA), particularly in regard to the BT reach trucks' turning circle. "We constructed our purpose-built facility 13 years ago and we had suppliers such as Dexion and TMHA involved in its design and layout, to help maximise area and the racking space," says warehouse and logistics manager Glen Mackenzie. "Part of that was minimising the space between the racking so you can get more of it into the warehouse, making the most efficient use of our footprint." Juicy Isle adopted a purchase-outright model for its fleet. "I come from a finance background and we historically had machines on an operating lease, but given the performance and longevity of the BT reach trucks, I saw a strong value proposition in us purchasing them outright and extracting the longest service life from them as is practicably possible," says Mackenzie. Along with Toyota petrol forklifts, the BT reach trucks comprise the bulk of Juicy Isle's materials handling fleet and TMHA are its preferred supplier for all forklift equipment.