Moving 2 million litres of wine a week

To maintain its weekly output of more than two million litres of wine, Casella has expanded its material handling fleet to 140 Toyota forklifts nationally.

One of Australia’s largest wine exporters, Casella Family Brands is based at Yenda, near Griffith in rural NSW, and exports its products to 52 countries worldwide. Since 1969, Casella has been Australia’s largest family-owned winery, with its major brand [yellow tail] accounting for one-fifth of all bottled wine products leaving Australia.

The impressive scale of Casella Family Brands’ 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 wastewater 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 Brands’ annual wine product volume requires the grapes from 15,000–16,000 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% of Australia’s grape crush.

The 82 forklifts at the Yenda facility are supported by Liftek Griffith on behalf of Toyota Material Handling Australia (TMHA) with an on-site workshop and service technician.

The Toyota forklifts at Yenda range from the 2.5-tonne payload 8FG25 to larger 4.5- and 8-tonne payload forklifts. The company also has a 15-tonne capacity Toyota 4FD150 with a Bolzoni Auramo side attachment for stacking empty 6- and 12-metre containers. Each 12-metre 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 Brands’ 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.

“There is always a peak in mid-January for the forklift fleet as we receive the first grapes for vintage.”

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 winemaking, bottling and shipping process.

Toyota’s 8FG25 model makes up the majority of the Casella forklift fleet. It is one of the comprehensive Toyota 8-Series range of counterbalance forklifts, which includes gas and diesel models as well as full range of battery-electric forklifts.

Safety features of the 8-Series forklift range include Toyota’s exclusive System of Active Stability (SAS) and Operator Presence Sensing (OPS) as standard features.

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,” 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. In 1999, Chaise joined the business after completing his automotive qualification.