Fuller’s has been using the Penny Hydraulics Cellar Lift to help with deliveries in pubs for 20 years. To mark this anniversary the manufacturer recently presented the brewer and pub company with two specially engraved commemorative tankards. One of these was for its head office and the other for the very first pub to use a Cellar Lift, the Royal Standard in Croydon.Ref: PEN11/14
“The excellent business relationship between Fullers and Penny Hydraulics has provided for the seamless installation of the cellar lifts into the Fuller’s estate and has overcome the manual handling problems that pre-dated the installation of the first cellar lift at The Royal Standard in Croydon,” says Tony Hogan, the Estates Department’s project manager at Fuller’s.
Based at the historic Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, Fuller, Smith & Turner plc (commonly known as Fuller’s) is an independent family brewer and pub company whose brands include the world-famous ESB and London Pride, the UK’s best selling premium cask ale. The company originally selected the Cellar Lift to eliminate the need in pubs to handle barrels from the delivery point – usually the street-level pavement door flaps – down to the cellar by hand. It now routinely installs one in its new pubs or during the refurbishment of newly acquired properties wherever it identifies the need. Around 200 are currently in use across the estate with the most recent installed at the Princess Royal at Runfold, near Farnham, towards the end of 2010.
The Penny Hydraulics Cellar Lift can be installed in virtually any basement or first floor cellar to handle all types of barrel or drink related products. The range includes vertical, sloping and compact designs that combine low cost of ownership with efficient, reliable and safe operation. The most common configuration is the vertical unit that can raise and lower any barrel weighing up to 300kg, equivalent to a full 54 gallons, or a double stack of crates whilst occupying the minimum of cellar space. The sloping version offers the same performance and is designed for applications where a vertical lift is not practical, for example where cellar access is awkward or where a concrete skid is present.
The majority of Fuller’s pubs are in the southern half of the UK. All of the lifts are serviced on a contract with Penny Hydraulics whose team of nationwide engineers looks after all maintenance issues and undertakes statutory inspections and other checks as part of its package.
