Crown earns five nominations for the 2025 Archies Awards
Crown has been nominated in three categories of the prestigious Archies Awards in 2025. For the past 30 years, the UK Material Handling Association (UKMHA) has recognised exceptional accomplishments in material handling solutions with the Archies Awards.
This year, Crown’s WJ 50 Series has been nominated for Best New Product, while Crown’s SP 1500 Series order picker is a finalist in the “Operational Efficiency” category. Additionally, three of Crown’s forklift engineer apprentices – Dan Allen, Xavier Graham and Thomas Bassham – have been nominated for the “Apprentice of the Year” award.
The SP 1500 Series delivers efficiency, comfort, and safety
The Crown SP 1500 Series high-level order pickers boost forklift performance and efficiency while enhancing operator comfort and safety. These order pickers are designed to adapt to the operator’s specific needs and tasks. They stand out with an advanced, ergonomic operator area, called the Op-Zone, which offers exceptional all-around visibility and a range of customisable controls, providing comfort and control that enhances safety during order picking.
The SP 1500 Series runs on Gena, Crown’s next-generation operating system, which provides operators with an intuitive, data-rich experience that’s fully integrated into the reach truck’s architecture. Its 7” colour touch screen, programmable in 25 languages, regularly displays safety messages to remind operators of their training. This automated assistance and coaching with context-sensitive alerts further enhances performance and productivity. Customisable widgets help operators reach new levels of productivity.
The Gena operating system also simplifies integration with the InfoLink operator and fleet management system, which helps promote safe operating behavior with features including access control, visual inspection checklists, impact detection, alerts and equipment lockout. Captured real-time and historical data can help identify areas of opportunity and reveal areas of risk.
Crown’s Xpress Lower technology lowers the SP 1500 Series mast up to 2.5 times faster than other solutions. This results in shorter throughput times and increased handling capacity, thereby increasing overall productivity. The regenerative lowering system and optional 48V battery further enhance energy efficiency.
"The SP 1500 was built from the ground up based on direct input from customers around the world” says Ismail Altintac, Marketing Product Manager at Crown. “We focused on the priorities of our customers: safety, performance, and comfort. This order picker brings that vision to life."
The WJ 50 Series: A compact, durable, and agile solution for tight spaces
Crown’s new WJ 50 Series compact electric pallet truck embodies the company’s philosophy of ergonomic, functional design and long-lasting durability. The WJ 50 Series is well suited for truck transport, curbside deliveries and use in wholesale and retail settings.
“The WJ 50 Series offers a powerful alternative to manually operated pallet trucks. It combines robustness, manoeuvrability and ergonomics and enables operators to work more efficiently and achieve more in less time” explains Christian Peter, Marketing Product Manager at Crown. “This is also confirmed by the positive feedback from our customers, who have already subjected the truck to intensive practical tests. They particularly praised the precise handling and comfortable driving experience and the robust design, which comes into its own in demanding applications.”
The Archies awards ceremony will be held on September 10, 2025, at Vox Conference Centre, within the NEC, Birmingham, UK.
About Crown Equipment Corporation – EMEA
Crown is one of the world’s largest material handling companies with a reputation for award-winning product design, advanced engineering and technology, as well as superior after-sales service. For 80 years, Crown’s business philosophy utilises vertically integrated processes to design, manufacture and distribute forward-thinking, innovative solutions that improve customers’ productivity and operating efficiency. Crown produces a broad range of forklifts, batteries and chargers as well as automation, fleet management technologies and warehouse solutions products and design services.
The company’s global headquarters is located in New Bremen, Ohio, USA, with regional headquarters in Germany, Australia, China and Singapore. Its employees number 20,300 worldwide. Crown operates a service and distribution network that exceeds 500 retail locations in over 80 countries. To learn more about Crown’s ideas for helping customers advance the productivity of their operations, visit crown.com.