The compact vehicle combines an 800kg rear load platform with a towing capacity of up to 10 tonnes. This allows a single machine to transport tools, components and equipment while also towing trailers and other wheeled loads around a site.

The P0810-E uses a 48V electric power system with a quoted battery capacity of 360Ah. It has a maximum travelling speed of 25km/h, making it suitable for internal transport operations where manoeuvrability and controlled site speeds are more important than road-going performance.

The rear platform can be configured for different applications, allowing the vehicle to support aviation ground handling, engineering, manufacturing, maintenance and warehouse operations. Its compact dimensions also make it suitable for sites where larger commercial vehicles would be difficult to manoeuvre.

Electric operation eliminates exhaust emissions at the point of use and reduces noise compared with traditional diesel utility vehicles. Electric drivetrains also contain fewer moving components, potentially reducing routine maintenance requirements and helping operators keep vehicles in service for longer.

Although much of the materials handling industry's transition to electric power has focused on forklift trucks, vehicles such as the Charlatte P0810-E show that the same change is taking place across supporting transport equipment.

For organisations replacing ageing diesel vehicles, a machine capable of both carrying and towing could help simplify fleets, improve vehicle utilisation and support wider environmental objectives.

Charlatte provides spare parts and technical support for its equipment in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Finnish group, whose product range spans heavy-duty lift trucks, reach stackers and port handling equipment as well as industrial cranes, published its January to June figures on 24 July.

Pre-tax profit for the half fell 9.1 percent to €207.6 million and revenue was 5.3 percent lower at €1.93 billion. Second-quarter operating profit dropped 12.6 percent year on year to €119.6 million, on net sales of €1.02 billion, down 2.8 percent in comparable currencies. The comparable EBITA margin for the quarter stood at 12.7 percent.

Orders told a very different story. Order intake for the half rose 6.9 percent to €2.3 billion, with second-quarter intake up 13.4 percent in comparable currencies at €1.24 billion. The order book closed the period at €3.38 billion, 16.1 percent higher than a year earlier.

Konecranes expects net sales in 2026 to remain at approximately the same level or increase compared with 2025, with the comparable EBITA margin also roughly unchanged.

The shape of the result – softening revenue and profit against a strengthening order book – chimes with the forecast from UKMHA and Oxford Economics that UK forklift orders will grow by around 9.4 percent this year. Demand appears to be returning ahead of the margins, with work won now feeding through to revenue over the coming quarters.

For dealers and end users, a rising order book across the sector is also the point at which lead times typically start to lengthen again, after a period in which improved supply chains had been shortening them.

The five machines cover three-wheel and four-wheel counterbalance, reach truck, pallet truck and stacker formats. Notably, these are mainstream truck types rather than purpose-built automation platforms, suggesting an intention to automate the equipment operators already run rather than sell them something separate.

All five are built on a common technical foundation combining 3D LiDAR, multi-view depth cameras and what the company describes as an edge-cloud collaborative industrial large model. Hangcha says this gives the trucks environmental understanding, natural-language task comprehension, autonomous load handling, motion planning and proactive safety.

Natural-language instruction is the departure from convention here. Most automated handling equipment still requires tasks to be defined through fixed routes and pre-set rules, so a truck that can be told what to do in ordinary language would change how such fleets are commissioned and reconfigured.

Beyond individual trucks, Hangcha demonstrated cluster-level capabilities including distributed multi-vehicle scheduling, digital twin visualisation, remote resolution of anomalies and automatic charging.

The company presented the event as marking its transformation from a forklift manufacturer into a technology-driven provider of intelligent logistics solutions. Hangcha is China's largest forklift manufacturer and recently opened a lithium-ion battery plant at Le Mans in France in partnership with Manitou.

The announcement lands in a segment that has become busy over the past year, with ABB, STILL and Jungheinrich all moving on autonomous handling. The common thread is the loading dock and pallet movement between goods-in and racking, where operators see the clearest case for removing manual driving.

The programme replaces ageing diesel-powered equipment with electric alternatives and introduces shore power for vessels at berth, allowing ships to shut down auxiliary engines while alongside. DP World expects it to cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 6,000 tonnes a year, while improving air quality, reducing noise and increasing operational reliability for customers.

The financing is structured around more than the EBRD loan alone. A grant of €19.7 million comes through the European Union's Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility, part of the Connecting Europe Facility, with the EBRD acting as the EU's implementing partner. A further €7.5 million is provided under Romania's Transport Programme 2021-2027.

The announcement comes only days after DP World put its first fully electric reach stacker into service at the Port of Santos in Brazil, reported here on 16 July – two electrification projects on different continents inside the same month.

Port and terminal handling equipment has been slower to electrify than warehouse fleets, and for understandable reasons: duty cycles are long, loads are heavy and the power draw of a reach stacker or straddle carrier is an order of magnitude beyond a counterbalance truck. Grant-supported schemes of this kind are increasingly how the step is being funded.

For UK operators watching the same transition, the Constanta project is a useful indication of the scale of investment involved in converting a terminal rather than a warehouse, and of the blend of commercial lending and public funding being used to make the numbers work.

The story began in 1956 with the LA model, Toyota's first forklift truck. Seven decades on, the company's counterbalance range spans electric, lithium-ion, diesel and LPG power, covering everything from compact warehouse work to heavy outdoor duty.

Among the developments Toyota highlights from that period is the System of Active Stability (SAS), introduced in 2002. The system monitors the truck's operating conditions and intervenes to reduce the risk of tip-over – still the single largest cause of serious forklift injuries and fatalities – and became one of the more widely imitated safety technologies in the sector.

Toyota attributes much of its approach to the Toyota Production System, the manufacturing philosophy built around quality, efficiency and continuous improvement that originated in the wider Toyota group and has since been adopted well beyond the automotive and materials handling industries.

The company says its focus for the coming years rests on three areas: electrification, automation and connected solutions. That mirrors the direction of the wider market, where electric trucks now account for the substantial majority of global forklift sales and telematics is increasingly treated as standard rather than optional.

For UK operators, the anniversary is a reminder of how much the counterbalance truck has changed while its basic job has not. The core principle – a rear counterweight balancing a load carried ahead of the front axle – remains exactly as it was in 1956.

Peter Hutchinson, 60, was helping to load bales of plastic waste into a shipping container on 4 November 2021 when a bale slipped from a forklift truck. He stepped backwards, fell around 1.5 metres from the ramp onto the concrete surface below and suffered serious injuries. He died in hospital on 23 November 2021.

The Health and Safety Executive investigation found that the company had failed to properly assess the risks associated with the loading operation. It had also allowed employees to access ramps without handrails, despite the manufacturer's instructions explicitly requiring them to be fitted.

Investigators further found that the firm had not adequately considered reasonably practicable alternatives to working at height, such as using the existing loading bays or placing containers on the ground.

Bertschi UK Limited was fined £425,000 and ordered to pay costs of £119,258 at Teesside Crown Court on 17 July 2026, for breaches of Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and Regulations 4(1)(a) and 6(2) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.

The fatal event was the fall, but the trigger was a load slipping from a forklift while a person was working at height alongside it. That combination – a truck handling loads in the same space and at the same moment as people on a ramp or in a container – is a familiar one on any yard running container work.

Two practical checks follow from the case: that mobile ramps in use are fitted with the handrails they were supplied with, and that the question of whether the job could be done from an existing bay or at ground level has actually been asked before anyone works at height.

The transaction, valued at roughly $325 million, follows SoftBank's decision to exercise a put option embedded in the 2021 deal that saw Hyundai take its original 80 percent controlling interest. The predetermined price values Boston Dynamics at approximately $3.3 billion — consistent with the 2021 valuation.

Full ownership gives Hyundai greater strategic flexibility over the robot maker, including long-term decisions on investment, business strategy and a potential future stock market flotation.

For the materials handling sector, Boston Dynamics matters well beyond its famous robot dog videos. Its Stretch robot — which unloads trailers and containers at up to 700 packages an hour — is already working in UK warehouses, with DHL among the major logistics operators deploying it as part of a £550 million UK robotics investment announced last year.

Hyundai's plans point to deeper integration between robotics and manufacturing. The group intends to deploy Atlas, Boston Dynamics' humanoid robot, at a manufacturing plant in Georgia, USA from 2028, initially on parts-sequencing tasks, with the role expected to expand into component assembly by 2030.

The move consolidates Hyundai's position across the full spectrum of industrial automation — from its forklift ranges through port equipment to humanoid robotics — and signals where the group believes the future of materials movement lies.

The new series covers capacities from 2,200kg to 3,500kg and delivers substantial performance gains over its predecessor: lift speeds up to 65 percent faster and energy consumption up to 20 percent lower, based on VDI cycle testing – improvements aimed squarely at operations trying to move more product per shift without adding trucks or operators.

Visibility gets particular attention. The ERC-VG2 features what Yale describes as the largest through-mast window in its class, 34 percent larger than the previous model, improving the operator's forward view of forks and load. A near-zero turn radius supports work in congested dock and aisle areas.

Energy flexibility follows the pattern now standard across the industry: operators can specify lead-acid, thin plate pure lead or factory-integrated lithium-ion power, matching the truck to their duty cycle and charging infrastructure. Suspended and air ride seat options reduce shock and vibration through longer shifts.

"Supply chains and warehouse operations run on tight margins, and are pushed to squeeze as much productivity as possible from scarce labour resources," said Lauren Grady, Product Manager at Yale Lift Truck Technologies. "The ERC-VG2 series pushes electric forklifts forward with key improvements that help operations do more with less and keep total cost of ownership in check."

The launch was announced from Yale's Greenville, North Carolina base, with the cushion-tyre configuration aimed primarily at the North American market. It follows a busy product year for the brand, which also released a pedestrian detection dashboard and an automated counterbalanced stacker earlier in 2026.

The delivery comprises 15 electric internal terminal vehicles (ITVs) and three electric reach stackers. The ITV fleet alone is expected to cut CO2 emissions by more than 500 tonnes compared with the diesel equipment it replaces.

The equipment arrives as part of DP World's BRL 1.6 billion (roughly £230 million) expansion of the Santos terminal, which will lift container handling capacity to 2.1 million TEU by 2028. The operator has already spent over BRL 100 million electrifying 22 rubber-tyred gantry cranes at the site.

The results are showing up in the fuel figures: between January and April 2026, the terminal's diesel consumption fell 29.2 percent against its 2024 average.

For the wider materials handling industry, the significance is the machine class. Reach stackers — with lift capacities around 45 tonnes — have long been considered among the hardest equipment to electrify, for the same reasons heavy counterbalance trucks were: energy demand, duty cycles and charging windows. Fully electric examples moving from trade-show prototypes into revenue service at a major port marks a threshold moment, echoing the heavy-electric push seen this year from Jungheinrich's FalcOn prototype and Hyster's XTLG series.

European operators are following the same path — Kalmar confirmed this week it will supply Contargo Group with its first fully electric reach stacker, suggesting the technology is arriving in mainstream intermodal fleets on both sides of the Atlantic.

The F712 handles multiple load types and sizes – including open and closed pallets, containers and racks – at capacities up to 2,000kg and lift heights reaching 8.5 metres. ABB quotes positional accuracy of ±10mm and travel speeds of up to 1.7m/s while loaded, with certification to current ISO and ANSI safety standards.

The significant departure from most autonomous forklifts on the market is navigation. Rather than following pre-installed infrastructure such as reflectors, magnetic tape or floor markers, the F712 uses AI-enabled Visual SLAM to build and navigate its own map of the environment. For operators, that removes a substantial slice of the installation cost and disruption normally associated with deploying automation into a live warehouse.

The truck runs on ABB Robotics' AMR Studio software, a no-code, drag-and-drop suite handling setup, fleet coordination, traffic management and real-time visualisation. ABB says the platform delivers up to 20 percent faster commissioning and allows mixed fleets of tugs, movers and forklifts to be managed as one system rather than as separate installations.

The launch lands in an increasingly busy segment. STILL, Jungheinrich and others have all moved on autonomous handling in the past year, with the loading dock and pallet movement between goods-in and racking emerging as the areas where operators see the clearest case for removing manual driving.

Aaron Back, 41, a father of four, had been contracted by the company to dismantle pipework at the EMIR site on Wotton Road in Ashford, Kent. On 28 March 2023 he was working from a raised tipping bucket mounted on a forklift truck when he fell out of it onto the concrete floor below. He spent months in hospital.

The Health and Safety Executive investigation established why the forklift was being used at all: a scissor lift had been ordered for the job, but it was too tall to enter the area where the work was taking place, so the forklift and bucket were used instead.

Investigators found that no suitable arrangements were in place to manage the company's contractors and ensure safety on site. They also identified significant failings relating to unsafe work at height over a prolonged period, noting that HSE had given the company advice and enforcement action regarding the control of contractors and unsafe working at height as far back as 2013.

South East Refurbishment Limited, of Rochester, Kent, pleaded guilty to a breach of Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The company was fined £90,000 and ordered to pay costs of £27,241 at Margate Magistrates' Court on 7 July 2026.

Lifting a person in a bucket, on a pallet or in any attachment not designed and certified to carry personnel remains among the most common serious misuses of a forklift truck. Purpose-built integrated working platforms exist and are subject to specific requirements covering the platform, the truck and the way the two are used together.

The detail worth carrying away from this case is the reasoning that led to it. The correct access equipment was identified and ordered, then did not fit the space. At that point the job needed different access equipment, not an improvised alternative on the front of a forklift.

The G3 Series builds on Heli's established G-generation platform, bringing the company's latest cab, ergonomics and safety thinking to the heavy end of its range. Machines in this class typically work at a 600mm load centre handling loads such as steel coil, containers and packaged timber.

Heli, headquartered in Hefei, China, is one of the world's largest forklift manufacturers by volume, and its equipment is well established in the UK market through an independent dealer network — making global product launches like this one directly relevant to British buyers weighing the growing Chinese heavy-truck offering against the established European and Japanese marques.

The heavy-duty 12-18 tonne segment has been among the most active corners of the market this year. Chinese manufacturers have been pressing into territory long dominated by the likes of Hyster, Kalmar and SMV, while the electrification wave that has transformed the counterbalance market below five tonnes is now reaching upwards — Heli's own G-series family already includes lithium-battery variants in the 12-18 tonne bracket.

For UK dealers, the arrival of another credible heavy-truck range adds negotiating leverage and widens sourcing options in a segment where lead times and capital costs have historically been punishing. Pricing and UK availability are expected to follow through Heli's distributor network.

The site specialises in the design and assembly of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery modules and packs – the chemistry increasingly favoured across the materials handling industry for its stability, longevity and easier recycling compared with other lithium-ion formulations.

The two partners, who have worked together for around twenty years, have invested six million euros in the venture. The facility comprises 1,500 square metres of production and R&D space, 760 square metres of storage for components and battery modules, and a further 800 square metres for logistics and administration.

Production is scheduled to ramp up from October, with the first batteries due for delivery in the second half of 2026. The partners say the packs will charge faster, need less maintenance and offer a lifespan several times that of the lead-acid equivalents they replace.

The JV gives Manitou a secured European supply of batteries for its expanding electric range – the company launched ten new lithium-ion rough-terrain and semi-industrial forklifts earlier this year and is targeting 28 percent electric sales by 2030. For Hangcha, China's leading forklift manufacturer, it establishes a production foothold inside Europe at a time when battery supply chains are under increasing political and logistical scrutiny.

For UK dealers, the development is another signal of where the market is heading: battery production moving closer to the trucks it powers, and LFP consolidating its position as the default chemistry for electric materials handling.

The report, "The state of energy and sustainability in the UK material handling industry", was produced by Consultus Sustainability from a survey distributed to UK Material Handling Association (UKMHA) members. It found that respondents rate their concern over volatile energy costs at 8.05 out of 10 – yet the majority are taking little practical action to address them.

Despite that high level of concern, 84% of businesses said they were operating with no energy management system in place to track or mitigate waste. More than half of respondents (53%) reported that they had not implemented any energy efficiency measures at all over the previous 12 months, pointing to a significant disconnect between awareness and action across the sector.

The findings are drawn directly from the trade, with dealerships making up 42% of respondents and manufacturers 32%, alongside other industry-related roles. The majority were small-to-medium operations, suggesting that the businesses feeling the pressure most acutely are often those with the least capacity to invest in dedicated energy management.

Natalie Dunbar, head of net zero services at Consultus Sustainability, said the survey exposed a worrying trend and warned that efficiency and sustainability measures should no longer be treated as optional extras. With wholesale industrial electricity costs still running around 75% higher than pre-2021 levels, she argued that rapid decarbonisation and energy management have shifted from corporate social responsibility to a baseline requirement for financial survival.

UKMHA CEO Rob Fisher said rising energy costs remained a serious concern for the sector, but stressed that the report also demonstrated a strong business case for action, with energy efficiency and sustainability initiatives capable of delivering cost savings, operational resilience, competitive advantage and improved access to investment. The full report is available to download via the Consultus Sustainability website.

The investment, the size and value of which have not been disclosed, strengthens an existing partnership between the two companies with the stated goal of bringing an autonomous solution for one of the last non-automated core processes in intralogistics to market. Development is focused on the requirements of the European and North American markets.

Loading and unloading lorries has long been considered one of the most technically demanding tasks to automate. Different trailer geometries, changing load carriers and confined space conditions place high demands on technology, safety and reliability, which is why the dock has remained a manual process at many sites even as the rest of the warehouse has become increasingly automated.

Navflex, a technology company established in Germany in 2021 and now headquartered in Colorado, has developed AI-based software for autonomous perception, navigation and process control at the loading dock. Crucially, the mobile solution is designed to operate in tight, variable environments without the need for additional fixed infrastructure. Jungheinrich brings its expertise in industrial trucks and autonomous mobile robots, along with systems integration and global service capabilities, pairing an industrialised vehicle platform with Navflex's software.

Dr Tobias Harzer, Chief Automation Officer at Jungheinrich AG, said that loading and unloading trucks is a key bottleneck in the material flow for many customers. He added that the joint development places particular emphasis on robustness, compactness and manoeuvrability at the loading dock, as well as safety in environments where people and machines operate side by side.

Navflex CEO Chuck Stovall said the company had deliberately chosen to tackle a problem long considered almost impossible to automate, and that entering the European market required a partner able to deliver industrial execution, scaling and global service. The joint solution is currently undergoing extensive field tests with major customers under real operating conditions.

The 8,000 sq ft facility opened on 8 June 2026 and includes modern training suites, workshop and demonstration areas, technical committee spaces and meeting rooms for industry events. The Midlands location was chosen for its road and rail connectivity, making it accessible to members across the country.

UKMHA CEO Rob Fisher said the opening marked an exciting chapter for the association. President Andrew Woodward described the facility as representing far more than just a new building, calling it a centre for learning, collaboration and innovation.

Training is central to the move. Paul Dancer, Head of Learning and Development, said learning and skills development were just as critical to the future of the sector as the equipment itself. The next phase of UKMHA's training programme launched within days of the opening, with the first in-person courses delivered at the new facility.

Technical Director David Goss pointed to the safety case underpinning the investment, noting that UK forklift suppliers lose more than 1,000 working days a year to injuries, with nearly 30 percent of those occurring off the equipment rather than during driving. That figure fed directly into the 2026 National Forklift Safety Day campaign, which began the day after the official opening and focused on technician safety.

The headquarters gives the association a permanent base for the accredited training and technical guidance it provides to members, at a point when the sector is contending with both a skills shortage and a significant overhaul of forklift training categories.

Associated British Ports (ABP) has invested £150,000 in the two purpose-built attachments, which are designed specifically for lifting large pipes while reducing the need for manual handling and improving load stability. The equipment entered service on 13 June 2026, discharging imported water pipes destined for a number of UK national infrastructure upgrades, reinforcing the port's role in handling critical cargo.

The operation uses two vacuum lifting systems working in tandem. According to B&B Attachments, a 25,000kg capacity crane fitted with a vacuum lifter first discharges the water pipes from the vessel onto a shunter wagon. The shunter then transports the pipes along the dock to a storage yard, where a second vacuum lifting system, mounted on a 42,000kg reach stacker, offloads and stacks the pipes ready for onward transportation.

The technology uses advanced suction to securely grip the pipe surfaces, allowing operators to lift and position loads with greater control and precision. Crucially, it reduces the need for personnel to work in close proximity to suspended loads, while also enabling faster loading and unloading, improving placement accuracy and reducing vessel turnaround times on the quayside.

Paul Ager, Divisional Port Manager at ABP, said safety underpinned everything the operator did and was central to how it invested in and ran its ports. He described the vacuum lifting attachments as a clear example of targeted investment in specialist equipment that reduces risk for teams while improving efficiency. Steve Egginton, Key Account Manager at B&B Attachments, added that it was rewarding to see the systems already in use on a project contributing to essential UK infrastructure.

Although relatively small by UK standards, King's Lynn occupies a specialised position in Britain's port network, handling around 400,000 tonnes of cargo and some 190 vessel calls each year. The investment forms part of a wider programme of specialist equipment acquisitions across ABP's estate, which includes bespoke solutions such as the magnets used for steel handling at the Port of Newport. B&B Attachments, based at Nelson Park in the north of England, is the UK's leading supplier of forklift truck attachments and the exclusive UK distributor for KAUP.

A 43-year-old man was working at Streamline Shipping Agencies Limited's premises at Palmerston Quay, Aberdeen, when he was struck by a reversing forklift truck driven by a colleague on 26 September 2024. The worker was on foot, unclipping the curtain side of an articulated trailer, when the forklift's rear nearside wheel made contact with his right leg and pulled him to the ground.

He suffered multiple fractures to his right foot and lower leg, along with a de-gloving injury, and underwent two surgical procedures and skin grafts. He has also required counselling as a result of the incident and had not returned to work at the time of sentencing.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the company had failed to ensure its workplace was organised so that pedestrians and vehicles could circulate safely. While Streamline had a traffic management plan in place, it lacked the detail needed to ensure that loading and unloading – which routinely took place in the same area – could be carried out without putting employees on foot at risk. HSE concluded it was reasonably foreseeable that a worker on foot could be struck by a moving vehicle when both the driver and the pedestrian were concentrating on their own tasks nearby.

HSE inspector Nicky Smith described the incident as serious and wholly avoidable, with a profound and lasting impact on the worker's life. He stressed that employers have a legal duty to ensure pedestrians and vehicles can move safely within the workplace, particularly in busy areas where loading and unloading takes place, and warned that a traffic management plan is not enough if it does not contain the detail needed to protect workers on the ground.

Streamline Shipping Agencies Limited pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 17(1) of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 and Section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The company was fined £146,700 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £11,000 at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on 22 May 2026. Following the investigation an improvement notice was served, and the company subsequently made a series of improvements to its traffic management arrangements to the satisfaction of the HSE.

The case is a stark reminder for operations across the materials handling sector that segregating people from trucks remains one of the most important controls in any yard or warehouse. Where loading and unloading shares space with pedestrian activity, a documented plan alone is unlikely to be sufficient unless it sets out clearly how the two are kept apart in practice.

The order saw Forkliftcenter supply a new Kalmar reach stacker and a MAFI terminal tractor, together with trailers and accessories, to upgrade cargo handling at the island's only port. The equipment was assembled and deployed on the ground by Forkliftcenter's official regional partner for Southern Africa, Right Equipped Solutions, which is headquartered in Namibia.

Getting the machines there was a logistical feat in its own right. Shipping was handled by Global Shipping Center, overcoming the considerable challenges of reaching what is widely regarded as one of the most remote ports anywhere in the world.

Saint Helena sits in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, roughly 1,200 miles (1,931km) from the nearest coast of Africa. A British Overseas Territory, the island and its community of several thousand residents depend almost entirely on the port at Rupert's Bay for essential supplies, making reliable cargo handling equipment critical to daily life.

For materials handling suppliers, deliveries of this kind underline the global reach of the trade and the role port equipment plays in keeping isolated communities connected and supplied. Projects in such locations demand careful planning around shipping windows, assembly on site and long-term parts and service support far from established dealer networks.

Gillian Brooks, minister for Safety, Security and Home Affairs at the St Helena Government, said the new equipment provides resilience to the port and should improve the efficiency and effectiveness of cargo operations. She added that support from suppliers such as Forkliftcenter was greatly appreciated and that the territory looked forward to working with them again on its future equipment needs.

The deal completed after Cascade received the necessary European regulatory approval, and is now fully effective. The remaining 40% of the Turin-headquartered business will be retained by FT Invest Srl, a structure designed to ensure continuity in Eurofork's governance and strategic direction.

Eurofork is a well-established name in intralogistics, specialising in pallet shuttle systems and automated handling devices for high-density warehouses. The company has more than 130,000 applications installed across 93 countries and has built its reputation as a trusted technology partner to leading system integrators worldwide.

Cascade has been keen to stress that the business will retain its independence. Eurofork will continue to operate as a Tier 1 supplier to system integrators globally, maintaining what both companies describe as full commercial neutrality, with CEO Maurizio Traversa remaining in post alongside the existing leadership team.

For Cascade, the investment broadens a portfolio long associated with forks, masts and lift truck attachments into the fast-growing field of advanced logistics and automated storage and retrieval. The company said the move strengthens its ability to deliver more comprehensive, end-to-end warehouse solutions to customers worldwide.

The acquisition continues an active period of expansion for the Portland, Oregon manufacturer, following its move in March 2026 to take a majority stake in Austrian firm Cargometer, which specialises in 3D weight dimensioning of loads on moving forklifts and AGVs. Traversa said the arrival of a US multinational was a source of pride not only for Eurofork but for the wider Italian industrial sector, adding that Cascade had recognised the company as a partner with strong growth potential.