Last updated: August 2026
The food production industry operates at pace. Tight hygiene standards, demanding shift patterns, and the constant pressure to move goods faster without compromising accuracy make material handling equipment a critical variable in day-to-day performance.
Electric pallet trucks are increasingly becoming the equipment of choice for food manufacturers across Ireland and Northern Ireland, and the reasons go beyond environmental credentials. For businesses like Cranswick Country Foods PLC at their Ballymena facility in Northern Ireland, the switch to EP Equipment’s KPL201 Electric Ride-On Pallet Truck has delivered measurable gains in throughput, efficiency, and operator satisfaction.
Why Food Production Needs Electric Pallet Trucks
Manual pallet trucks work for light, infrequent movements. But in a busy food production environment where pallets of product move continuously across shifts, the physical demand on operators is significant, and the pace they can sustain is limited.
Electric pallet trucks eliminate the physical effort of moving heavy loads. More importantly, ride-on models like the KPL201 allow operators to cover distance across a large production floor quickly and repeatedly without fatigue. In a food production context, this directly impacts throughput and how much product moves, and how quickly.
There’s also a hygiene and compliance angle: electric pallet trucks produce no fumes, no exhaust residue, and no oil drips therefore keeping them compliant with HACCP food safety requirements that would disqualify diesel or LPG equipment from the production floor.
The EP Equipment KPL201 — What Makes It Suited to Food Production
The KPL201 is EP Equipment’s electric ride-on pallet truck, designed for high-throughput environments where an operator needs to move pallets quickly over longer distances. Key features:
- Lithium-ion battery with opportunity charging — keeps the truck operational across extended shifts without battery swaps
- Ride-on platform — allows the operator to stand and travel rather than walk, significantly increasing throughput across a full shift
- Compact turning radius — manoeuvrable in tight production floor layouts
- Low noise operation — important in production environments where communication matters
- Robust build quality — rated for the kind of daily, intensive use common in food manufacturing
See the KPL201 and the full electric pallet truck range.
Cranswick Country Foods, Ballymena — Real Results from a Northern Irish Food Manufacturer
Cranswick Country Foods PLC operates a major food production facility in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. When they were looking for electric pallet truck solutions to improve material handling efficiency across their production floor, they chose EP Equipment’s KPL201, supplied through Clearlift.
The results have demonstrated exactly what electric ride-on pallet trucks deliver in a real food production setting: improved throughput, reduced operator fatigue, and reliable performance across demanding daily shift patterns.
This is the kind of operation the KPL201 is built for; high volume, tight floor layouts, and a requirement for consistent performance shift after shift.
The Wider Case for Electric in Irish Food Production
Across Ireland and Northern Ireland, food manufacturing is one of the most important sectors with Kerry Group, Glanbia, and dozens of regional producers are all running large-scale production operations where material handling is a critical cost variable.
The move to electric is being driven by a combination of factors:
- Energy cost: electric pallet trucks are significantly cheaper to run per hour than diesel-powered alternatives, and the cost advantage grows as energy efficiency improves
- Regulatory direction: Ireland’s Climate Action Plan and IDA Ireland sustainability criteria are both pushing industrial operations toward zero-emission equipment
- Labour efficiency: electric ride-on trucks like the KPL201 allow each operator to do more in a shift — fewer operators per pallet moved
- Maintenance: fewer moving parts, no engine servicing, and lithium-ion batteries that require no maintenance
See the KPL201 at Our Navan Demo Centre
If you want to see the KPL201 and the wider EP Equipment range working before you make a decision, our demo centre in Navan, Co. Meath is open for visits. You can put the machine through a real operating cycle, run it on your typical load type, and speak to our team about how it integrates into your production layout.
Book a free visit: Contact us
Ireland: 01 5267 411 | Northern Ireland: 028 3833 7038
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