Pooling Partners helps to simplify pallet and box use every day. Sounds easy, but it’s all in the detail, making it a specialist’s task.
IPP Logipal is part of Pooling Partners, Europe’s #1 in pallet pooling and production, with a turnover of 300 million Euros and 800 employees. The UK business was launched in 2005 and has become one of the leading pallet poolers to fast moving consumer goods supply chains.
Pooling Partners also orchestrates pallet use within the chemical and polymer sector through its PRS Pool Pallets network. Across Europe, it’s also one of the key suppliers of rental boxes to the industrial sectors; such as upstream electronics or downstream WEEE handling.
Carl McInerney, Country Director, IPP Logipal UK & Ireland, spoke to Warehouse & Logistics News.
WLN – As the Pallet Pooling category experts, how has the category been performing in the last 12 months? What are the major trends and developments?
In 2014, Pooling Partners in the UK and Ireland grew by double-digits, winning numerous new customers and extending services to our existing customers.
Today we have a wide range of coverage across all major FMCG sectors: fresh, chilled, frozen, ambient and DIY.
The continued recovery of the UK economy has been evident across all sectors with pallet trips being an excellent barometer. The wonderful summer undoubtedly drove a seasonal uplift in sales for categories usually benefiting from a long, hot season.
WLN – What are your core products and services: what are you best known for providing?
Pooling Partners provides simple, streamlined service solutions to pallet users. With a special focus on delivering and collecting pallets at the right place, at the right time, we’re recognised across the supply chain. Our customers seek reliable supply and want to ease their daily pallet operations. Since our service usually improves overall efficiency, customers teaming up with us often see significant cost savings.
Pooling Partners is also able to supply solutions for all types of pallets. We help customers organise EPAL Euro pallets across Europe, as well as supplying Pool Pallets. We’re also one of Europe’s largest pallet production companies. It’s really about looking at our customers’ needs and providing them with a complete product and service range.
WLN – What developments or upgrades have you made to your core products and services in the last 12 months?
We continued to invest in our pooling network. Having a dense network for collection and supply of pallets reduces transport miles: a common target we share with customers.
I’m also proud of the good reputation our team has earned and the win/win relationships we’ve established with our customers. It’s certainly a good sign when more customers use our pooling services – and we’re seeing a lot of that.
Our UK senior management team brings together industry-specific experience, having worked with firms like Coca-Cola, DHL, Exel, UPS and Volkswagen, and as logistics professionals, we understand the needs of manufacturers and retailers. Probably that makes the difference.
Our grass-roots approach to employee recruitment, induction and training is proving effective. In 2014, our customers were very satisfied with the level of service provided by our team. We set development benchmarks and it’s satisfying to see our team reach and surpass those goals. We’re growing and retaining the right skills and experience to maintain our momentum and continually improve customer satisfaction.
WLN – What makes you the ‘go to’ supplier in your area of expertise?
I would say reliability is number one. Customers that team up with us often handle millions of pallet trips. They need a partner on which they can rely. Even if everyone aims for zero defects, things don’t always happen as planned. Then, reacting with an immediate, effective solution qualifies us as a strategic partner. We understand how mission-critical basic pallet operations have become.
Second is competitive, transparent pricing. We’re intensely IT driven and want our customers to receive invoices that are easy to understand.
More and more, customers are also interested in engaging in environmentally friendly business. What we do affects the CO2 footprint of every pallet throughout its lifecycle: production, reuse, return, recovery, repair and recycling. Our approach is both economically and environmentally sustainable. We aim to minimise the energy needed to produce pallets and reduce transport and use empty transport legs wherever possible. Many see this as a must for the future of smart logistics.
WLN – Have you launched any new products and services in the past year? How are they performing?
After its great success in Germany, we launched our award winning 1.4 Display Pallet in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. We have started to talk to customers in the UK too.
For industrial applications in the UK, we launched leading-edge reusable and collapsible boxes. The box solutions include promising options that can be combined: a Bulk Box and a High Protection Box with handling and packaging accessories including liners, flexible textile inserts and smart pocket frames to form a complete solution.
WLN – Which industry sectors are your customers in?
The company’s principal clients are in the FMCG, retail, recycling and industrial sectors.
WLN – Can you name some of your major customers and tell us about the work you do for them?
Since we run a dense pallet network, we work with the largest brands in grocery and retail in the UK and Ireland. In 2012, for example, we began providing pallets on a small scale to Beiersdorf, for products like Nivea. Today we regularly provide pallets for their entire UK business. We also work with hundreds of small-to-medium-size companies in logistics that play an important role in forming the dense pooling network.
WLN – Can you tell us about your latest major projects, and what they involve?
We’re talking with our customers about new strategies to co-operatively reduce transport – especially empty transport. Since many are also large users of transport, it helps if we can use empty transport capacity for our pallet collection or relocation tasks, for instance. We see this as a collaborative approach to help cope with rising road costs all over Europe.
WLN – Have you made any big moves recently in terms of investment in the business, recruitment and so on?
We’ve significantly invested in our pallet pool. In 2014, more than one million new pallets were produced and added to our stock. We also expanded our repair facilities in the UK, strengthening our ability to ensure the quality of pool pallets during their entire lifecycle.
WLN – What was your company’s single biggest achievement in the last year?
2014 has been a good year. We’ve seen double-digit growth in the work we do for our customers. That’s a reflection of the rising demand for smart pallet solutions, but also on our focus on customers’ needs and satisfaction for more than a decade in the UK.
WLN – What are your plans for 2015? Are you planning to bring out any more products or services, move into new markets or enter new countries?
We intend to lead the pallet market which requires constant improvement. Over the next year, you can expect further growth of our coverage areas and new services across our wider business.
WLN – Are you exhibiting at any major trade shows this year?
Pooling Partners exhibits at major exhibitions in Paris, Hamburg, Munich, Madrid and Turkey – and supports pallet conventions across Europe. There’s always a chance to meet us. For a list of our upcoming exhibitions please visit: www.poolingpartners.com.
WLN – What are your predictions for the industry in 2015?
We see a continued focus on efficiency and more emphasis on sustainability. Real success will come from a truly collaborative approach that eliminates hidden costs and makes pallet processes simple, smart and reliable.
WLN – What other headline news from your company can our readers look forward to reading about in Warehouse & Logistics News in 2015?
You’ll see our engagement in Circular Economy: an approach that demands intelligent design of products and services so they can be shared and reused. Our pallet pooling services are already pretty close to being a perfect circular product. We hope to share our know-how to illustrate how other products could be pooled and reused in similar cycles.
Phone: 01676 524000
Email: sales@poolingpartners.com
Comments are closed.