Heinz loading bay safety improved

Part of The Kraft Heinz Company, Heinz’s Kitt Green premises is Europe's largest food factory, producing more than one billion cans of Heinz’s famous product lines every year. Growing sales and product innovations have kept the company’s loading bay industrious, and as such health and safety has always been, and remains, a key priority.

Thorworld was appointed to improve the loading bay’s existing process of using a forklift truck and cage to give pallet trucks and operatives rear access to container vehicles.The company's engineers used an appropriate assessment of the Heinz site and loading bay requirements to create a bespoke modular scheme to give access to shipping containers.

A maximum incline of six degrees was specified to suit the powered pallet trucks in use on site. The limited space available required an L-Shaped ramp / platform combination with a suitable turning area at the top of the ramp. Operator access to the dock leveller was provided via a set of access steps and a collapsible framed dock shelter included to prevent weather ingress.

The new Thorworld dock leveller and platform fits within a wider set of improvements Heinz has implemented at its Kitt Green site.  Additions such as a separate mechanism to prevent HGVs from moving during loading, and the installation of a ‘portal frame building’ to house the new leveller and ramp have also been added – protecting both operatives and product lines.

The company has been so pleased with the Thorworld equipment, that it has also replaced a 10,000kg dock leveller – used to enable larger fork lift trucks to unload tomato pulp – with new Thorworld apparatus. 

Graham Hollinghurst, project manager at the Kraft Heinz Company, confirms that all the Thorworld kit is functioning well and his team of operatives in the loading bay are impressed with the apparatus they are using and its performance.