Packaging & logistics

A new role for packaging
The function of packaging is no longer simply to provide minor protection for a short journey. Its job today is to ensure total protection and branding for international transportation and markets. Until recently, packaging (boxes, pallets) remained a largely one-way, disposable commodity, but the need for cost reductions and environmental pressures are changing that.

Secondary packaging considerations

Pallets
Until recently, the movement of wooden pallets was the most simple and cost effective distribution solution. But nowadays, the use of wood is considered problematic as it is consuming scarce world resources and can also carry bugs and diseases. This has lead to a ban on wooden pallets within the food manufacturing environment and more and more governments banning the importation of wooden pallets from other countries in order to protect their local environment. There is consequently a slow but marked shift towards the use of plastic pallets, and these have already become standard in some industries such as brewing.

Cardboard
Extensively used as secondary and tertiary packaging for transport on pallets, cardboard is now also considered environmentally damaging. Huge resources are employed in creating cardboard packaging and its disposal after use is also detrimental to the environment.
In fact, it now costs retailers more to dispose of packaging, not only in real economic terms but also in terms of increased financial and administrative burdens imposed by the government.

Shelf ready packaging – the last 20 metres
The time and space required to unpack products from disposable secondary packaging costs retailers a significant amount of money. It also delays the process of getting the product onto the shelf. This has lead to increased demand from retailers for shelf-ready packaging: at the point of manufacture, the product goes into packaging that is placed straight on the display shelf at the point of sale.

First seen in the produce department of major supermarkets, the idea was not considered revolutionary. After all, for years fruit and vegetables had been packed in the farmers’ field (or adjacent pack house) straight into containers to be placed on market stalls. The real novelty arose when major retailers started using re-usable packaging, in high quality displays.

What’s more, the use of plastic boxes made it easy to maintain the high quality of the product, even when it was moved from warm to cool environments and was exposed to moisture. Due to its many financial and operational benefits, the demand for shelf ready packaging is increasing rapidly.

Environmental legislation
Increasingly, governments are steering manufacturers and retailers towards re-usable packaging through financial incentives and legislation against disposable solutions. Returnable shelf-ready packaging allows retailers to achieve all their goals: improving the supply chain, reducing costs, improving on-shelf availability while meeting increasing legislative and environmental demands.

Schoeller Arca Systems have been leading the market for over 20 years, developing solutions for retailers to improve the efficiency of their supply chain while reducing costs. World leaders in the design and manufacture of plastic pallets, shelf ready packaging and crates, Schoeller Arca Systems have the experience, skills and manufacturing capacity to meet and exceed the demands of retailers in all sectors.

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