Ag dealer trusts Toyota

As its business continues to expand across the state, New South Wales John Deere machinery dealership Hutcheon & Pearce has consistently looked to Toyota for its material handling needs.

The company recently commissioned 18 forklifts from Toyota Materials Handling Australia across its 11 branches in southern NSW. The order was placed with Toyota dealership Liftek, who has been providing materials handling solutions to Hutcheon & Pearce for the last five years.

The 18 Toyota units include seven new Toyota 8-Series 8FD30 three-tonne payload diesel forklifts and three new 8FD50N five-tonne payload forklifts, plus eight fully refurbished forklifts ranging in capacity from one to eight tonnes.

Toyota's large-capacity pneumatic-tyre forklifts, as supplied to Hutcheon & Pearce, have won several prestigious design awards in recent years.

In 2015 the Hannover-based iF International Forum Design named Toyota's 8-Series 3.5 to 8.0-tonne engine-powered counter-balance forklift as one of three Toyota forklift group design-award winners.

Toyota's 8-Series forklift range had previously received a Special Mention in the German Design Awards in 2015 (the first forklift to do so), while it won Japan's Good Design Award in 2014.

Key safety features of the 8-Series include Toyota's exclusive System of Active Stability, which helps reduce the likelihood of lateral roll-overs.

Hutcheon & Pearce managing director Arron Hutcheon says the company wants its staff to have the best equipment available to do their job.

"Our mixed forklift fleet had grown to over 20 forklifts as we have expanded over the years and acquired more dealerships," he says.

"Some of the forklifts in the fleet were well overdue for replacement and when we started looking at our options, we soon realised we had two main objectives – to update the whole fleet to see us through the next 10 years, and to do this with a product that has the same 'practice what you preach' principles as the John Deere products we sell.

"This led us to Liftek and Toyota. We wanted a solution that could deliver on four key principles – product quality, reliability, dealer support and resale value – as we feel these are the same ones that give us our competitive advantage.

Hutcheon thanked Liftek managing director Chaise Staltare and his father Vince for their support.

With a quarter of a century as a Toyota forklift provider, Staltare says the company's service support arrangements matched the needs of Hutcheon & Pearce and its forklifts.

"The 11 Hutcheon & Pearce branches are mainly spread out within two to three hours of the Griffith (NSW) area in all directions," he says.

"All the branches are located in country towns that we already service, which gave us the edge for support as our eight fully equipped service and breakdown vehicles were travelling to the areas already."

In addition to the Toyota brand, Toyota Material Handling Australia also carries the BT and Raymond brands of forklifts and warehouse equipment.