FRUITS OF

Oranges are a surprisingly delicate fruit. Despite their tough exterior, they can bruise and spoil easily which means transporting them is a fine art.

For Ben Knispel, who is joint managing director of Nippy’s, a family-owned juice producer, he trusts his deliciously juicy asset in DAF trucks, and has been using them consistently for eight years.

“Our main crop is navel oranges which we harvest during winter and you’ve got to be gentle with the fruit, especially on a frosty morning,” says Ben. “You need to transport it carefully.”

Ben, whose business is based in rural South Australia, gets his trucks from the local dealer, to whom he has had a personal connection for a number of his father always had a fondness for European trucks.

In total, Nippy’s has six DAF vehicles. Its first was a 6x4 CF85, 460hp prime mover. It then acquired more CF85s and one CF75 8x4 with a 16-pallet capacity curtainside body. Its latest addition is a Euro 6 rated CF85 530hp 6x4 prime mover.

“Dad is definitely happy with the DAF trucks, he really likes them,” Ben says. “They are just so smooth and comfortable. You get out of them at the end of the day, and you still feel like you can do another trip.” attending Adelaide High School, the boys began collecting oranges from the family’s packing facility and hand-squeezing them in their mother’s kitchen. They started selling the juice to the local shops and the juice, thanks to the family nickname, became known as Nippy’s juice. After selling juice to neighbours, friends and the local market, their kitchen operation grew enough for them to rent a small factory with more sophisticated machinery. Today Nippy’s has three facilities: a chilled juice operation in Adelaide, a fruit packing plant in Waikerie, and the original factory at Moorook, which

Nippy’s began trading in the 1930s during the Great Depression when Ben’s grandfather, Alix Knispel, started growing and packing citrus in the Riverland of South Australia.