20 January 2011:
Perhaps the fastest growing forklift and warehouse equipment supplier in the country, Goscor Lift Truck Company (GLTC) owes its success to great products, exceptional service, unwavering discipline and a strong belief in innovation.

“Our success is based on a bouquet of interrelated activities carried out in a coordinated and professional manner,” says Darryl Shafto GLTC. “One of these activities is a conscious effort to always be looking for innovative solutions for our clients.”

The revolutionary Bendi range of narrow aisle forklifts, which GLTC brought to the country less than two years ago, is a perfect example of such a solution.

“As the cost of space spirals there is an increasing demand for narrower aisles and the Bendi, with its unique ability to articulate and operate in narrow aisles and spaces, is helping to make a significant difference to our clients’ bottom line.

Even in widths of just 1.8m, the Bendi articulated forklift helps the operator work faster, safer and more accurately. We have also had reports from our Bendi users here and overseas that racking damage is significantly less,” says Shafto.

He adds that the Bendi, because it can pick indoors and load outdoors with equal dexterity, precludes the requirement for two machines thus enhancing efficiency.  “The Bendi can load a truck straight from the rack avoiding the double handling of pallets,” says Shafto.

 “The typical reach truck requires aisles of 2.5 to 3m for storage and racking, but reach trucks typically have small, harder wheels and low ground clearance, making outdoor use impractical. But the Bendi, because of its unique counterbalanced design and its ability to articulate, is able to handle a similar load to a common forklift truck and work in aisles that are much narrower and space saving.”

Another advantage of the Bendi is the speed it can transfer from aisle to aisle. Shafto explains: “Obviously very narrow aisles (VNA) machines make efficient use of narrow aisle space, but they need large areas and longer times to transfer between aisles. However the Bendi behaves like a VNA but moves like a conventional forklift.”

Several high-profile retailers have seen the benefits of the Bendi including Makro and SPAR. In the process of narrowing its aisles in various stores Makro has taken delivery of a fleet of Bendi trucks from Goscor and the retailer’s Alan Walker says that the trucks have performed according to spec and that he is pleased with their overall effect.

“Not only have the trucks performed to our expectations but also, as usual, we continue to receive professional backup and service from Goscor who helped us considerably in introducing these revolutionary articulated forklifts into our system,” says Walker.

Another good example of the benefits of Bendi technology is at SPAR Eastern Cape where, through innovative design, an extra 40% storage space has been achieved at its 9000m² ‘slow-moving’ off-site warehouse in Port Elizabeth. Two Bendi 318 articulated forklifts were acquired to operate in the narrower aisles.  These were the first Bendi forklifts to be used in the SPAR Group nationally.

GLTC Eastern Cape branch manager Mike Burley says the main challenge in this facility was the utilisation of space as it is a long and narrow building. “The task was to help increase the storage capacity and the Bendis, with their unique capability to articulate and operate in very narrow spaces, were a part of the solution,” he says.

SPAR Risk & Maintenance Manager at the facility Julian Koutsouvelis says that apart from their ability to work in the facility’s narrow 1950mm aisles, the versatility of the Bendis with respect to their ability to work both inside and outside was important in the decision to buy them. “It’s all very well having machines that can work in narrow aisles, but if one had to then transfer to another machine to load onto the outside vehicles, the advantage would be lost,” he says.

South Africa is not the only place where demand for Bendi is burgeoning. It is the case in Europe too and especially in the United Kingdom where the technology is in great demand.

One of the better known companies there, which has narrowed down its aisles and has used Bendi trucks for some time is Animal. James Runcimen, operations manager at Animal’s global distribution centre in Poole, says that Bendi products have helped the company reduce significantly warehouse costs including the efficient use of space, reduced lighting, heating and building maintenance. They have also helped overcome a difficult building structure to achieve maximum storage and distribution efficiency.

Animal operates with 4636 total bulk pallet positions up to 7m high, with 12755 pick faces and 1203 full pallet pick faces. A fleet of Bendi B313 articulated trucks is used to remove pallets from the marshalling areas and place stock in predetermined pallet positions. The three-wheel trucks maintain excellent stability in the narrow aisles with up to 1.35ton lifting capacity at heights of 7.2 m with no special floor requirements. 

Shafto says that he is pleased that Goscor is once again at the forefront in offering groundbreaking technology to the materials handling industry. “We are dedicated to maintaining and improving our world class service levels for our customers and Bendi contributes significantly to our ability to do this,” he concluded.

The Bendi, because it can pick indoors and load outdoors with equal dexterity, precludes the requirement for two machines thus enhancing efficiency.

About Goscor Lift Truck Company

GLTC is the sole distributor in South Africa of some of the most famous brands in the industry including Crown, Doosan and Bendi

With manufacturing facilities globally, Crown is the world leader in the manufacture of electric materials handling equipment. Catering to the ever-changing demands of warehousing, Crown has equipment to suit every conceivable warehouse application.

Doosan is a world-class manufacturer of one of the finest selections of lift trucks. The company’s “brakes for life” system – an oil-cooled disc brake system, which eliminates all outside contamination by any humid, abrasive or corrosive dust particles, significantly reduces operating costs and GLTC offers a 60-month, unlimited hours guarantee on it.

GLTC’s most recent initiative is Bendi, a revolutionary counterbalanced, articulating forklift, which can work in very narrow spaces. Even in widths of just 1.8m, the Bendi articulated forklift helps the operator work faster, safer and more accurately.

Goscor Lift Truck Company. Part of the Goscor group of companies operates from the Goscor group head office in Chloorkop, east of Johannesburg, with fully equipped branches strategically situated in all major centres of South Africa.