LONDON, UK — October 15, 2025 — IFCO, a global leader in reusable packaging solutions for fresh produce, has been named Business Service Partner of the Year at the 2025 FPC Fresh Awards. The honour recognises IFCO’s measurable contribution to sustainability and efficiency in the UK’s fresh-produce supply chain through its circular pooling system of reusable plastic containers (RPCs).
“IFCO’s innovative circular model demonstrates exactly what our industry needs – practical, scalable solutions that deliver both commercial and environmental gains,” said Nigel Jenney, Chief Executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium. “Their partnership approach and measurable impact across the supply chain make them a truly deserving winner of this year’s Business Service Partner Award. It’s a shining example of how collaboration and innovation can work hand in hand to drive sustainability within the UK fresh-produce sector.”
IFCO’s Closed-Loop System at Scale
From six automated service centres across the UK, IFCO supplies sanitised, food-safe RPCs to growers for packing fruit and vegetables. After use, containers are collected from retailers, inspected, cleaned, and returned to circulation. At the end of their long service life, they are recycled into new RPCs of the same quality, a fully closed-loop system under IFCO’s SmartCycle™ program.
Each IFCO RPC is engineered for durability, foldability, and up to 120 reuse cycles, providing economic as well as environmental value. In 2024, the SmartCycle network achieved measurable results across the UK produce sector:
105.9 million kg of CO₂ emissions avoided, 247.9 million kg of solid waste eliminated, 10 million m³ of water saved, and 10.6 million kg less product damage. IFCO equates these savings to removing more than 76,000 cars from the road for a year or conserving water for 252 million five-minute showers.
“Our partnership with IFCO reflects our shared commitment to building a more sustainable supply chain,” said Gavin Town, Senior Manager National Fleet at Asda. “The efficiency and environmental benefits of IFCO’s solutions are crucial to our operational strategy. Their trays have also revolutionised our produce department, making merchandising easier and enhancing the overall customer quality perception.”
“This award reflects the trust our growers, retailers, and supply-chain partners place in us, and the results we achieve together in efficiency, waste reduction, and sustainability,” added Chris Taylor, Managing Director of IFCO UK.
Why It Matters
This year’s FPC Fresh Award comes as UK retailers accelerate efforts to decarbonise logistics and packaging. IFCO’s model illustrates how reuse can compete on both cost and carbon, delivering documented impact rather than aspirational targets.
According to the company’s verified performance data, each IFCO RPC used in the UK eliminates the equivalent emissions of a single-use box after roughly five trips, and continues to yield net savings for the remaining hundred-plus rotations of its service life. That closed-loop efficiency is what allows circular packaging to move from pilot to infrastructure.
The scale of IFCO’s SmartCycle network also strengthens traceability and quality control. Automated wash centres operating on renewable electricity and integrated inspection systems support food safety compliance while lowering energy intensity per crate. For retailers, this means not only a lower footprint but also higher merchandising consistency and less shrinkage in produce aisles, delivering direct economic value aligned with sustainability outcomes.
Setting a Benchmark
The FPC Fresh Awards, organised by the Fresh Produce Consortium, celebrate excellence across growers, retailers, and supply-chain partners. IFCO’s recognition as Business Service Partner of the Year reinforces how circular systems are reshaping service expectations in UK produce logistics.
Rather than a symbolic win, the 2025 award reflects verifiable results: data-backed, operationally embedded, and collaborative across the value chain. In an industry increasingly defined by measurable impact, IFCO’s SmartCycle performance sets a clear benchmark for what “business service partnership” can mean in a circular economy.
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Rick LeBlanc, EMBA, is the founder and editor of Reusable Packaging News (subscribe to the free newsletter) and editor of Western Pallet Magazine. A supply chain journalist with more than 30 years of experience, he specializes in pallets, reusable packaging, material handling and related operations. Rick is co-author of Pallets: A North American Perspective and Pallets & Progress: A Collected History of Pallets and Palletized Handling 1922–1945. He is also an advisory board member of the Virginia Tech Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design. Read Rick’s full bio.
