plastic pallets

How Plastic Pallets Help Food Companies Increase Their Revenues

It may seem a paradox, but purchasing and owning a stock of plastic pallets helps many large and medium sized food companies record more revenues than companies which still opt to rent them. The rental side is not the only issue here – the companies which choose this option usually select wooden pallets.

The High Cost of Renting Cheap Pallets

Historically, wooden pallets hold the first place as the packaging material of choice for most industries. They are cheap to make, cheap to rent or buy and easy to dispose of when they are damaged.

However, their top advantages are intrinsically their biggest weak points: as their price is perceived as low, there is little care involved in keeping wooden pallets in pristine condition. Also, being easy to recycle (or even upcycle as modern furniture), nobody thinks twice about writing off a damaged pallet.

On the surface, there is no problem with that. No pollution, no major losses. But is it so? When a company rents an item and it is damaged, a penalty is paid for that item. One damaged pallet does not cost a fortune, some would argue. But when these expenses are added up, month after month, year after year, together with rental costs, delivery and replacement fees – rented wooden pallets are not so cheap anymore.

Another Key Perspective – Hygiene

Food is the ultimate product in terms of care for its safety and hygiene. It is one of the most regulated and supervised products manufactured and shipped all over the world. Our lives and health depend on the consumption of safe food. From this point of view, using wooden pallets is a painful liability.

Wood is not a hygienic material. It can absorb various liquids and deposit dust, microbes and other contaminants in its fibers. No matter how well it is cleaned, a wooden pallet will never be 100% hygienic after the first use.

Enter Plastic Pallets and Their Value as Assets

We made a bold statement at the beginning of this article – that plastic pallets help food companies generate revenues. And it is a claim we are ready to prove. Here are the key factors that support our statement:

With Ownership Comes Responsibility

Your employees will think twice about rough handling a plastic pallet owned by the company. They see it as company property, as an asset, and they will be more careful in working with it. The superior design and features of hygienic plastic pallets induce the idea of a higher purchase cost, compared to the rental cost for wooden pallets, therefore everyone who handles them will feel responsible to keep the pallets in good condition.

Large Companies Can Lease Plastic Pallets to Their Distributors

Here is a direct way in which food companies generate revenues from their pool of plastic pallets: they lease them to distributors, partner retail stores for an affordable fee. In this way, they ensure that their products are stored and transported in adequate conditions and make money out of the pallets they own.

Plastic Pallets Have a 4-Time Longer Life Span than Wooden Pallets

Return on investment is not a direct way of creating revenues. But it ensures the effectiveness of investments, and has a positive impact on the annual financial statements of the company. Any product which can be used for economic activities generating money for a long time is worth its purchase price – and plastic pallets are among the packaging materials with the highest ROI.

Food Is In Increasing Demand – And So Is the Need for Pallets

Food companies are among the top purchasers of pallets, as the global demand for their product increases with the number of population. Since a company perceives a constant, increasing need for a certain product, purchasing and owning it makes more sense than renting it. Instead of putting their money in another company’s bank accounts, food companies can make smart investment decisions by purchasing plastic pallets.

Plastic Pallets Are More Efficient Than Other Pallets

A standard hygienic plastic pallet has a static load of 4,800 kg – that is nearly 5 tons. This is nowhere near the loading capacity of any wooden pallet. It means that, for each trip, one plastic pallet can carry more products than one wooden pallet. When we are talking about dozens or hundreds of plastic pallets loaded with products per trip, just do the math and you will realize that you would need one or several more trucks for the same quantity of products loaded on wooden pallets.

Therefore, any company operating in the food industry should realize that plastic pallets are not just more hygienic, easier to clean and durable – they are the investment which always reaches full ROI and even generates revenues for the business.