Industrial Box Helps Wine Producer Speed Up Its Harvesting Activities

A sturdy and reliable container, such as the rigid industrial box, is a great asset for many industries dealing with large quantity of delicate goods, such as agriculture and food processing. In this case study, we will demonstrate the benefits of this packaging material for an important producer of wine and cava improve its on-site harvesting operations and obtain a good projection for the return on investment.

The Wine Making Business: Lots of Restrictions and Challenges

As the leading producer and distributor of the cava specialty on the European market (70% market share), our client is a long established owner of extensive vineyards and producer of wine using only traditional methods.

The wine making business, although one of the most profitable, is also one with lots of restrictions and challenges. The harvesting process is always a race against time: as grapes mature and reach the prime condition for yielding wine of the best quality, they must be harvested in a short span of time, before they go beyond this prime condition.

The loading, transport and unloading of crates full of fresh grapes is a also a serious challenge for wine producers: the grape is a very delicate and sensitive fruit, which can be easily crushed and damaged, making it useless for wine making. These are just two of the top challenging conditions faced by any company operating in this industry, but our client also had other specific needs.

Understanding the Client’s Requirements

Our client operates a fleet of tractors which bring the grapes from the vineyard to the wine press. When our consultants made the first visit at the premises, they found that the grapes were transported in 600 x 400 mm boxes on wooden pallets, and that all the loading and unloading operations were done by manual labor.

The client wished to automate as many of these operations as possible, replace the unreliable and unhygienic packaging materials with a modern solution, featuring these top requirements:

• A stackable packaging solution, which allows proper loading of the tractors, without crushing the contents (fresh grapes);
• Resistance to various weather conditions (heat, freezing, rain, etc.);
• Easy to handle and clean packaging material, allowing fast handling and washing to maximize the cycles of use;
• Constant weight – no water absorption, as was the case of the wooden pallets;
• Larger size than the boxes currently in use, but not exceeding the platform of the tractors.

The Industrial Box: A Perfect Fit for the Client’s Needs

After analyzing the client’s requirements, the packaging experts from Logistic Packaging found the ideal solution: the 1200 x 1000 x 790 mm industrial box, a large and sturdy rigid pallet box. The characteristics and features of this reliable rigid container are the perfect answers to those requirements:

• The dimensions of the industrial box represent an average number between the old boxes and the tractor platform size;
• The design facilitates safe and stable stacking;
• The smooth inner walls are easy to clean and protect delicate products from marking or crushing;
• The special model with skids recommended for the client is easy to tip, facilitating the use of automated unloading machines;
• Made of polypropylene approved for food contact and resistant to acids and alkaline liquids.

The Benefits Perceived by the Client

The wine manufacturers report that they expect to cover the investment made in the batch of industrial box pallets in only 4 years. In the meantime, their harvesting operations are much faster, therefore reducing the quantity of lost grapes due to late harvesting. At the same time, they did not have to invest in other tractors, platforms or tippers, because the industrial box size is a perfect fit for their existing fleet.

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