Written and provided by FTMA Supporting Partner, Baumann Sideloaders Australia.
Long loads and narrow driveways. It’s a problem that the Womersley family has faced for generations, and they’re not alone in Australia’s retail timber and framing market. As the Managing Director of Melbourne’s Womersley Mitre 10, a business founded by his grandfather in 1959, Peter Womersley is all too familiar with the difficulties that can arise when handling long loads. Womersley Mitre 10’s flagship site in Frankston VIC is prime real estate, with a shopping centre on one side, and the newly opened Mornington Freeway on the other. And while this location offers many advantages, the only drawback is that there is simply no room to grow outwards.
Jack Womersley, Peter’s grandfather, started milling timber in Frankston in 1922, before going on to become one of the founders of Mitre 10. The customer base and goodwill built up over the last century with local community support is not something that Peter, or his brothers would ever want to lose. All agree, then, that the location is too important to consider moving. But with almost every square inch of the site now covered in either retail space or timber storage, the challenge for handling building materials in the business is twofold – increasing storage density without losing accessibility to product, and transporting long loads down the narrow access lanes surrounding and bisecting the site.
The solution, as it has been for over thirty years, is Baumann Sideloaders. Womersley’s Mitre 10 have recently replaced their Baumann HX40 after decades of faithful service, with a state-of-the-art Baumann ELX50. The all-electric zero emissions ELX is the world’s first electric sideloader to achieve working battery shift life of over 10 hours, with speeds and performance exceeding its Diesel counterpart. For the operators at Womersley’s Mitre 10, the arrival of the new sideloader has been, well, electric.
“It’s like driving a rocketship! Its much easier to drive, and so much quieter and more comfortable,” Yard Manager Andrew Rolfe is quick to praise the new Baumann.
With many of their loads being 5.4m framing timber, or even longer packs of engineered timber beams, Womersley’s Mitre 10 know that the quickest, and certainly the safest, way to handle these types of loads is with a Sideloader. While this solution is more expensive than a conventional forklift, Peter Womersley is quick to point out the commercial justification.
“We know that real estate is one of the most expensive parts of any business, and the Baumann helps us maximise every square metre of space. We also know that the build quality is such that we expect to keep this machine for twenty years, giving us a much longer amortization period.”
Baumann’s electric sideloaders have turned the market on it’s head. Whereas five or ten years ago diesel power was considered the norm, today up to 90% of Baumann sales are electric.
“Handling long loads is what the Baumann sideloader does,” adds Baumann Australia’s Craig Armstrong-Fray, “and being built for this kind of application means we want our customers happy for the long haul. It’s particularly gratifying to see a great decades-old local business like Wormersley’s Mitre 10 that’s benefiting from the equipment and getting the most out of the latest technology. Electrics offer savings on power and maintenance, but they are more comfortable to operate, provide more accurate control, are safer and are much better for the environment.”
Concludes Peter: “Obviously we look at the cost of operations and want to do things as efficiently as possible, but most importantly, we don’t put a price on safety. When it comes to handling long beams, we don’t ever want to be cutting corners by using the wrong forklift when our sideloaders are readily available.”
For more information, visit www.baumann-sideloaders.com.au, and check out the new Baumann at the Womersley site on Youtube below:
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