Pictured above: The Flexi in operation in Oakland's cold store

As part of an ongoing upgrade of its core service offering, Midlands-based multi temperature supply chain specialist, Oakland International, has invested in a fleet of Narrow Aisle Flexi articulated forklift trucks at its Redditch chilled and frozen facility.

The new forklifts will not only allow Oakland to increase storage capacity at their Redditch site, but also bring significant productivity gains for the company.

Oakland considered a number of mechanised handling solutions before investing in Narrow Aisle's Flexi trucks. General Manager, Ed Ross, stated: "Our investment reflects the Company's overall approach to reducing costs and delivering improved value that will directly benefit Oakland customers. It also takes into account our desire to support Oakland employees, by providing state of the art equipment to help them undertake a range of materials handling operations, with the end result improved operational functionality, flexibility and efficiency."

The Narrow Aisle Flexi trucks enable Oakland's forklift operators to load and unload vehicles, and deliver palletized loads directly to racking in one smooth operation. As a result, double handling is eliminated, delivering significant cost reductions for the company.

John Maguire, sales and marketing director of Narrow Aisle Flexi, commented: "We are delighted to be working with Oakland to provide a solution for the company's materials handling needs. The Flexi truck is popular among 3PLs who need to maximise storage density and require safe and efficient throughput and Oakland were quick to realise the benefits that articulated truck technology could bring to their operation.

"Down the years, the ability to deliver operational excellence has been at the heart of Oakland's success and we are very pleased that Flexi trucks will play such an important role in helping the company to achieve its future growth aims."

Operational excellence, exacting customer service delivery standards, and a flexible customer service oriented business, customers are seeing significant operational savings from Oakland's investment in advanced cold storage mechanics.

Commenting further, Ed stated: "By maintaining close focus on efficiencies across all processes, Oakland sustains its capacity to reduce costs, increase safety and deliver continual operational improvement throughout."