We have taken possession of the last ever counterbalance forklift truck to be manufactured at the Linde Material Handling (UK) Ltd’s Basingstoke plant during a presentation ceremony at the plant on Thursday 28 January.

Linde, one of the world’s leading makers of lift and warehouse trucks, donated the last three trucks, one of each type built at the plant, to local charities. Employees chose the charities they would like to help and we were nominated by several employees including Matthew Wiacek, a Senior Mechanical Engineer at Linde and an Annual Pass holder here at Marwell.

During the presentation Marwell’s Chief Executive James Cretney thanked Linde and its employees for the very generous gift at this difficult time, and added that the counterbalance truck, worth £28,000, will make a big difference to the day-to-day operations of the running of the zoological park. The truck will be used for a range of purposes including moving animal feed around the park and helping improve the animal’s enclosures to moving catering and retail deliveries. 

Since production began 60 years ago, many of Linde’s employees have been heavily involved in fundraising for various charities and John Adams, Linde Operations Director was keen to recognise the goodwill of the employees: “With the closure of Linde’s Basingstoke facility you could have rightly expected that their focus would be entirely on the effect of this on themselves and their families, but they still found time to give thought to contributing something back into the local community.”

Linde also donated a tow tractor to The North Hampshire Medical Fund, and a reach truck to The Community Furniture Project.

Top image : (left to right: Keith Taylor, Marwell’s maintenance technician - James Cretney, Marwell’s Chief Executive - David Owen, joined Linde in 1977 and is one of the companies longest serving employees, Matthew Wiacek, Linde Senior Mechanical Engineer who nominated Marwell Wildlife to receive the truck.

Bottom image : (left to right) David Owen presents the keys to the truck to Keith Taylor, Marwell’s maintenance technician. David joined Linde in 1977 and is one of Linde’s longest standing employees.

Linde Material Handling is a leading supplier in all fields of intralogistics. With a UK Head Office in Basingstoke, Linde ranks among the world´s foremost makers of lift trucks and warehouse trucks and is also positioned as a major manufacturer of hydrostatic drives produced mainly for use in construction, farming and forest machinery. The company offers a range of solutions from financing to complete fleet planning.