140 Toyota forklifts
help keep Casella Family
Brands moving
One of Australia’s largest wine exporters has expanded its material handling fleet to 140 Toyota
forklifts nationally to maintain its weekly output of more than two million litres of wine.
Casella Family Brands is based at Yenda, near
Griffith in rural New South Wales, and exports
its products to 52 countries worldwide. Since
1969 Casella has been Australia’s largest
family-owned winery and its major brand
[yellow tail] accounts for one-fifth of all bottled
wine products leaving Australia.
The 82 forklifts at the Yenda facility are
supported by Liftek Griffith on behalf of Toyota
Material Handling Australia (TMHA) with an
onsite workshop and service technician.
The Toyota forklifts at Yenda range from the
popular 2.5-tonne payload 8FG25 to larger 4.5
and 8-tonne payload forklifts. They also have
a 15-tonne capacity Toyota 4FD150 with a
Bolzoni Auramo side attachment for stacking
empty 20 and 40-foot containers. Each 20-
foot container can hold 1100 cartons or about
10,000 litres of wine.
Liftek Griffith founder Vince Staltare hired an
additional service technician in 2004 to meet
the increased service requirements of Casella
Family Brand’s then 36 Toyota forklifts. Vince’s
son Chaise is now managing director of the
dealership.
Casella Family Brands’ head of distribution
Sam McLeod said the quality of the product
and after-sales support were key factors in
choosing Toyota forklifts.
“Toyota builds a very reliable forklift and our
local dealer services our business needs
well,” he said. “Currently we have one full-
time employee from Liftek Griffith on site five
days a week, as well as a 24-hour breakdown
service. At peak periods such as vintage we
have a second person come on site to enable
all servicing to be completed in set time
frames. (Vintage begins mid-January with the
first grapes harvested.)
“We also have great support from Chaise
Staltare of Liftek Griffith; he is very hands-on
with the Casella operations.”
In addition to the 82 Toyota forklifts at the
main site in Yenda further units are located at
the domestic warehouse, DMR-Rice Mill and
Miranda’s. Casella Family Brands winery Peter
Lehmann Wines also has six Toyota forklifts
in the Barossa Valley, including two battery-
electric forklifts and four 2.5-tonne forklifts that
were transferred from Yenda.
The Toyota forklifts at Yenda are used
throughout the whole wine-making, bottling
and shipping process. “There is always a
peak in mid-January for the forklift fleet as
we receive the first grapes for vintage,” Mr
McLeod said.
Liftek’s Chaise Staltare said his company
had expanded in parallel with Casella Family
Brands.
“We have grown with Casella Family Brands
and have always aimed to offer them service
that is second to none. With their continued
growth, and need to minimise downtime and
maximise safety, we felt there was only one
solution and that was to have a workshop
onsite for the winery to fully accommodate the
service needs of the company,” Mr Staltare
said.
“We planned the details with Casella and now
have a small, fully equipped workshop at the
winery. Prevention is better than cure, and we
have a service technician on deck five days
a week to keep the Casella forklifts in tip-top
condition.
“Having the workshop allows us to carry a
wide range of spare parts – more than can be
carried in a service van – so forklifts can be
back in production more quickly. We also offer
a 24-hour breakdown service out of Griffith at
night and on weekends.”
Liftek has serviced Griffith and the wider
Riverina area since 1995 when Vince Staltare
drew on his 15 years’ experience in the
material handling industry to start his own
business.
Based on his industry knowledge, hard work
and the philosophy that ‘if you look after others
they will look after you’, Vince successfully
built the business working alongside TMHA
In 1999 Vince’s son Chaise joined the
business after completing his automotive
qualification where he gained valuable hands-
on experience and an insight into the full
workings of the business. Chaise now works
predominately in the sales and administration
areas, further strengthening the vast
experience and knowledge Liftek offers.
Today Vince and Chaise are both actively
involved in all aspects of the business, with
Vince’s valuable industry experience and
Chaise’s fresh and innovative ideas and a ‘can
do’ attitude creating a recipe for success.
The impressive scale of Casella Family
Brand’s operation includes one of the fastest
wine bottling lines in the world, capable of
processing 36,000 bottles per hour.
The winery site occupies 32 hectares and
includes the largest rain and waste-water
treatment plant of its type in Australia. The
company’s weekly output through Yenda
of 2,100,000 litres of wine equates to 3900
pallets or 210 containers.
Achieving Casella Family Brand’s annual wine
product volume requires the grapes from 15 to
16,000 hectares of vineyard. Fruit is sourced
from premium growing districts including
Coonawarra, Wrattonbully, Padthaway, the
Barossa and Clare Valleys in South Australia,
and the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.
In 2011 Casella processed close to 10 per
cent of Australia’s grape crush.
TMH Torque
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4
1800 425 438
TMH Torque
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1800 425 438
