Toyota Material Handling Europe (TMHE) forklift trucks are renowned for durability and quality. De Wulf use heavy-duty Toyota 7FD50 and Toyota Tonero counterbalance forklifts, together with towing tractors in their material handling process. They are impressed by the trucks’ resilience to rough terrain and also praise the Toyota System of Active Stability (SAS) which makes the distribution process simple and cost-efficient.

1. Toyota 7FD50 case study
De Wulf, Belgium
This potato producer in Belgium relies on its heavy-duty Toyota 7FD40 counterbalanced
trucks to process hundreds of tons of unwashed potatoes every day.
De Wulf produces and distributes potatoes for both lot of soil and dust from the product so we really need it to system, which helps to protect De Wulf’s tall and heavy loads
the local and international markets. Established be robust and not suffer from abrasion and contamination,” and the trucks themselves.
25 years ago at its six-hectare site, south-east of comments Samuel Rase, De Wulf’s technical manager. “On
Brussels, today De Wulf has some 55 employees and top of this we work long shifts so we really need the highest De Wulf’s wooden stillages are easily damaged during
facilities including chilled storage, production and quality and durability from our trucks.” handling and they have two people working full-time to
food processing. keep them in good condition. “Our Toyota trucks, which are
“The trucks also have to cope with the agricultural nature of equipped with the SAS fork levelling control, really make a
De Wulf handles about 60,000 tonnes of potatoes a year the site. Loads are heavy, distances are great, and the floor difference here,” continues Rase. “The driver can level the
and can store about 32,000 stillages at a time, typically and ground quality is very variable. We don’t worry about forks by simply pressing a button, removing a lot of the
processing 200-250 stillages every day and despatching six these thanks to the Toyota equipment. stress from heavy load handling. It saves us a lot of time and
or seven lorries a day to supermarkets. These figures increase money.”
significantly during the summer high season. “The Toyota 7FD50 is our workhorse. We use it all day to
transport and deposit potatoes from the stillages into the “Our site has some narrow passages and is rather dark in
Potatoes arrive in two metre-high sacks on pallets, each washing process. For this we use a special attachment that places but we are confident that stability as well as durability
weighing some 1350 kg. They are transferred to wooden tips the potatoes into the conveyor system.” is not an issue with Toyota forklifts. We chose Toyota
stillages, and sorted for size in the process. These are then because of the reputation of its trucks for reliability in tough
stored in the chilled area or sent for processing – eg, washing Both the Tonero and the heavier 7FD50 have Toyota’s SAS conditions and we have found that to be justified.”
and packaging – before being despatched to supermarket
distribution centres.
The handling of the potatoes, from unloading the vehicles,
though the processing stages, to final despatch, is done
with counterbalance trucks including the Toyota 7FD50 and
Tonero. De Wulf also uses the heavy-duty Toyota 2TD25
towing tractor, which easily transports 30 tons of potatoes
at a time throughout their chilled and processing areas – a
method that is significantly more productive than handling
the pallets individually using forklift trucks.
As potatoes are a fresh product, De Wulf responds to daily
orders. The potatoes are sourced from about a dozen
varieties in the chilled store and moved into the appropriate
process. The final packets produced and despatched can
range from 25 kilograms down to just one kilogram.
“The materials handling equipment we use is subject to a