All the “silver foxes” of the international material handling equipment business remember the Italian manufacturer “BP”, especially known for its sideloaders, that were synonymous of rugged strength and proverbial reliability. “BP” is the acronym of Battioni and Pagani, the names of the two entrepreneurs that founded that successful company back in 1950. BP merged inside CVS Ferrari in 2016. The production of BP Sideloaders ended in 2022, when the Sorbolo facility – where these machines had been manufactured until then – was deployed to other activities. In particular to the rapidly ramping production of hybrid and full electric ECHs, as well as medium-heavy fork lift trucks. Very few know that BP was one of the European pioneers in the manufacturing of dedicated and telescopic spreader equipped Container Handling trucks. Actually, Sideloaders. That was in the 70ies, when the Sideloaders where believed to be the best solution to lift and transport the very long 40’ containers, in a time when over 90% of the boxes were 20’ size and moved by forks. Indeed, BP was then also manufacturing fork lift trucks up to 28 ton in capacity, that was really almost unheard back in those days. Now, modern container handlers, actually Reach Stackers and Heavy Duty Fork Lift Trucks, carrying the BP iconic logo, will be back in the game. They will initially start to operate “Downunder”, as Komatsu Forklift Australia has signed a distribution contract with CVS Ferrari. Under this agreement some models of the CVS product range will be built to a bespoke KFA configuration and sold by KFA with the “BP FERRARI” brand name in Australia and New Zealand. The first BP FERRARI Reach stacker, destined to a very famous Australian steel products manufacturer, has already been delivered to KFA and the first 32 Ton capacity Fork Lift Truck is due to sail from Italy in December 2024.