In August 2015, Melbourne Wholesale Fruit and Vegetable Market, along with the national Flower Centre, moved from its 46 year home in West Melbourne to their new state of the art home at Cooper St Epping.

Melbourne’s Fruit and Vegetable market started with Western Market in 1841. It was situated on the site bounded by Market, Collins and Williams Street and Flinders Lane. Eastern Market came into existence 6 years later as Melbourne rapidly grew.

Western Market started as a general market and gradually grew into a wholesale market. Both Western and Eastern Markets were absorbed by Queen Victoria Market.

By the 1960’s with the growth in the industry and changes in transport and refrigeration requirements, Queen Victoria Market could no longer do both retail and wholesale. A new site was developed at West Melbourne purely for the wholesale side of the market and opened in 1969 by Sir Henry Bolte. The National Flower Centre joined them in 1996.

In 2004, the Victorian Government started a plan for the new Wholesale Market. The move to Epping was completed in August 2015.

The wholesale market is a vital part of Victoria’s infrastructure with an annual turnover exceeding $1 billion; it is run by a government body going by the name of the Melbourne Market Authority (MMA).

Warequip Solutions saw an opportunity to work closely with the MMA to provide state of the art materials handling and logistic equipment in line with the state of the art facility.

Warequip Solutions spent 2 years actively working with all parties including Growers, Buyers, Wholesalers, Provedores Hire companies and the MMA to completely understand the nature of this industry. One of the things that needed to be taken into account was the sensitivity around a business that has been running since 1841 (174 years) with 5th generation companies working within.

At the previous site hire companies hired out petrol powered Tuk Tuk’s (small utility vehicles). It was deemed that keeping with the government environmental polices an alternative should be sought. Warequip Solutions carefully analysed both the running of West Melbourne and the new Epping site to come up with the best solutions.

Warequip Solutions suggested the use of Taylor Dunn electric vehicles, as they are electric and environmentally friendly. The versatility and flexibility of the Taylor Dunns were well received from all involved at the Market. The key point that has made this a successful transition has been the ability to tailor the electric Vehicles to each individual customer’s requirements.

Having done the ground work it was clear that there was no “one size fits all”. Warequip were able to offer cabins for weather protection, extended decks for greater carrying capacity, higher rated vehicles to tow trailers and much more.

Taylor Dunn had made an extremely large site much easier to deal with logistically and practically, that’s why a Taylor Dunn is the best way to go about your business.