News in Brief
August 5, 2022
Cabka updates Hazelwood plant status after exceptionally heavy rainfalls and floods in the St. Louis area
Amsterdam, 5 August 2022. Cabka N.V. (“Cabka” or the “Company”), a leading integrated circular production company listed at Euronext Amsterdam, provides an update on the status of its Hazelwood plant after extreme rainfall and subsequent floods in the metropolitan area of St. Louis (MO), USA, forced to shut it down on Tuesday 27 July, as reported earlier.
After a first assessment of the damages, the Company concludes that production is not going to restart in the short term on its premises in Hazelwood, Missouri, one of Cabka’s production plants representing roughly 15% of Cabka‘s overall production capacity. That said, all essential injection molding tools have been successfully recovered and will be used to continue supply to key customers using alternative production capacities. Further assessments are ongoing, and the Company expects to present additional information at the publication of the Half-Year results on 17 August 2022.
August 4, 2022
Wiliot Named as Cool Vendor by Gartner
SAN DIEGO, CA – Wiliot, the Internet of Things pioneer whose IoT platform is enabling trillions of “things” to gain intelligence and harness the power of the cloud, today announced that it has been named a “Cool Vendor” by Gartner in their recent report titled, “Cool Vendors™ in Indoor Location Technologies and Sensors” by Annette Zimmermann, Nick Jones, Bill Ray, and Tim Zimmerman.
This research does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services.
“It is a unique honor to be named a Gartner ‘Cool Vendor,’” said Tal Tamir, CEO of Wiliot. “We believe this recognition from Gartner represents our innovation, success and progress toward building a massive IoT platform that enables real-time supply chain visibility and asset management.”
Topics covered in the report include: the indoor location service technology stack; an overview of Wiliot and why it’s ‘cool’; key industry challenges; and who should care. The information provided in the report is of value to all supply chain, innovation, and sustainability professionals who are seeking new ways to transform their supply chains and assessment management tactics.
For more information on Wiliot, click here. To download the Gartner report, click here.
July 22, 2022
Loscam ANZ auction hits pause
File photoGoldman Sachs and UBS have paused their auction of Loscam ANZ’s pallet pooling business, citing market volatility to potential suitors.
According to The Australian Financial Review, sell-side advisers have advised suitors that owners had hit pause on the sale while market volatility persists. Indicative bids were due last week.
The sale flyers put Loscam ANZ at $170 million revenue and $90 million EBITDA for the 2021 calendar year, generated via its 7 million-plus pallet pool.
Potential buyers were advised that revenue had grown at 9 percent a year in the three years to December 31, 2021, and held 34 percent of the Australian market. CHEP had the other 66 percent.
July 21, 2022
New Pallet Return Record for ISOVER with help of Boomerang Retour
Do you have disposable pallets stacked up in your yard and don’t know what to do with them? At ISOVER, one-way pallets become reusable pallets. With its logistics partner Boomerang Retour GmbH, ISOVER offers a simple and free pick-up service across Germany. The response in the market speaks for itself: Since the start in January 2021, almost 100,000 pallets have been returned – 40,000 of them in the first half of 2022 alone. Almost 1,600 tons of CO 2 have been saved in the process. (as of the end of June 2022)
Source: ISOVER
PPS Group celebrates Carbon Neutral status
June 28, 2022 – PPS Midlands Ltd, the UK’s leading supplier of Returnable Equipment Solutions, has underlined its ongoing commitment to sustainability by becoming an officially accredited Carbon Neutral business. This follows the implementation of an in-house Sustainability and Environmental group created in 2021.
Partnering with Carbon Neutral Britain, The PPS Group is offsetting its carbon emissions via approved projects that contribute towards protecting the environment and supporting communities across the world with sustainable development. The Carbon offsetting includes emissions generated across all sites, including at PPS sister company Alison Handling.
Speaking upon receipt of the certificate confirming the PPS Group’s Carbon Neutral status, Group Managing Director Joanne Lee said; “We are delighted to have achieved Carbon Neutral status across our group. This underlines our commitment to sustainability and illustrates how strongly we see the importance of operating as a sustainable organization. As a business that has provided customers with sustainable transit packaging services for 20 years, we are aware of our environmental responsibilities and this was a natural evolution to ensure we minimize our impact on the planet”.
To achieve Carbon Neutral status the PPS Group calculated its annual carbon emissions for 2021 generated across all sites, comprised of operations, services and transport. Having calculated its total emissions, the company made an ongoing commitment to offset its carbon footprint by sponsoring certified projects across the globe.
By offsetting carbon emissions PPS is making a lasting impact on climate change for generations to come, helping to combat increased Greenhouse Gas emissions – the biggest cause of global warming on the planet. In addition to the environmental benefits, every project also supports local communities with sustainable development, such as providing safe drinking water, improving health, and creating local jobs, as well as having a positive impact on wildlife, ecology, and biodiversity.
Read more about PPS’s journey to Carbon Neutral at https://www.ppsequipment.co.uk/pps-group-celebrates-carbon-neutral-status/
HB RTS announces the acquisition of CC European Retail
Photo credit: CC RetailMay 12, 2022 – HB RTS (HB) has announced that it has completed the acquisition of 100% of CC European Retail (CCER), a rental and pooling provider of returnable transport items (“RTIs”) in the European food supply chain, from the Danish private equity fund Erhvervsinvest (“Erhvervsinvest”).
The acquisition increases HB’s available fleet of assets to 9 million RTIs and significantly expands the scope of the HB footprint and solutions for its client base. The combined business now has pan-European operations and offers a wide range of RTI rental, washing, and logistics solutions, with core segments being reusable crates, pallets, and rolling RTIs. Through this strategic step, HB will continue to find more efficient and cost-effective RTI solutions for its diverse customer base.
Commenting on the acquisition, Léon Rust, CEO of HB said: “We are very excited about this transaction. CCER is a market leader in providing reusable crates and rolling RTIs in the food and beverage supply chain. The companies both have their own strengths and are highly complementary. Read more.
Palletcentrale Group takes over Pallethandel De Weel
Moerdijk, 9 May 2022 – The Palletcentrale Groep has acquired Pallethandel de Weel from Waarland. Pallethandel de Weel has been independently buying and selling used pallets for many years. The Palletcentrale Groep states that it is the market leader in purchasing and selling used pallets. It will house the activities of Pallethandel de Weel at the Palletcentrale Noord Holland branch, which is located along the A7 at the Agriport business park in Middenmeer.
With this acquisition, the Palletcentrale Groep further expands its leading market position in the North Holland region. “The takeover strengthens the purchasing and sales network of the Palletcentrale Group,” said Frank Bennemeer, commercial director of the Palletcentrale Group. “This allows us to guarantee even more customers their pallet supply. Existing customers of de Weel can benefit from the service and quality of the Palletcentrale. A win-win situation.”
The Palletcentrale Groep is headquartered in Moerdijk. The company also has branches in Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Helmond, Middenmeer, Sas van Gent and Rotterdam. The Palletcentrale Groep annually sells more than 6 million used and new pallets in the Benelux.
Avery Dennison to invest over €60 million in capacity expansion and manufacturing efficiency in Europe
May 3, 2022
OEGSTGEEST, Netherlands — Avery Dennison Corporation has shared details of two major investments aimed at expanding its manufacturing capacity and improving factory efficiency in Europe to meet growing demand for its label and packaging materials.
The company said it is one year into a three-year, €45 million expansion of its facilities at Champ-sur-Drac, France. Enhancements include five new logistical buildings covering more than 8,700 square meters, a new automated warehouse, and an additional high-speed, state-of-the-art hotmelt adhesive coater, scheduled to come online in 2024.
At its Luxembourg facility specializing in labels made with acrylic emulsion adhesives, the company has undertaken a €15 million project to redesign operational flow and add a new emulsion specialty coater. The coater is expected to come online during the first quarter of 2023.
“Our investments at Champs-sur-Drac and Luxembourg will allow us to meet customer demand now and into the future by freeing capacity throughout our European manufacturing network”, said Tim Presto, Vice President of Supply Chain & Operations, EMENA.
The expansions at both Luxembourg and Champs-sur-Drac will enhance the reliability of service for customers by strengthening the company’s already robust network of manufacturing plants and distribution centers across Europe. Finally, these expansions will take us a step closer to fully embracing Industry 4.0 practices that increase efficiency, reduce operating costs, and free our employees to perform safer, higher-value tasks.
Sustainability Webinar: How to make data-driven impact?
Thursday April 21, 2022 15:00 – 16:00 (CEST)
Although almost every executive thinks sustainability is important, only 60% of the companies currently have a sustainability strategy. In order to track (and improve) your environmental impact, data collecting and monitoring is key.
Nowadays sustainability needs to be more than a label on your website, it needs to be integrated in your organization and decision-making process. Implementing and monitoring a sustainability strategy becomes easier when you know what to monitor and aim for.
In this webinar we will discuss what regulators and organizations expect from the new sustainability developments. What could (or should) be your main aim with your sustainability strategy? And how to monitor and manage your sustainability impact with data!
Meet the featured speakers at our Sustainability Webinar
Learn and get inspired by these industry experts:
Jesse Sels, President EMEA at Tosca;
Eleonoor Hintzen, Senior Sustainability Strategy and Integrated Reporting Specialist at Rebel;
Wouter de Waart, Modeler of Environmental Impact at Rebel;
Kevin Miedema, Technical Director at Bexter.
What to expect
- Jesse Sels has taken on the role of EMEA President at Tosca Europe since September 2020. His success as co-founder of Contraload, is now leveraged at Tosca Europe in the development of reusable load carrier solutions for in the supply chain in Europe and the rest of the world. Using real-life examples, he will discuss trends, his experience as a global leader in reusable packaging solutions and which load carrier is more sustainable: a wooden pallet or a plastic pallet?
- Eleonoor Hintzen and Wouter de Waart, share their experience in the fast-changing world of sustainability. In a presentation full real-life examples, they discuss what trends and regulations are coming up and how organizations can use data to measure, monitor and improve their environmental footprint.
- In his role as Technical Director at Bexter, Kevin Miedema is responsible for innovating a software platform for reusable load carriers. Sustainability is high on the agenda and one of the main goals is to provide software that enables the transition to a circular economy and a sustainable supply chain. During his presentation Kevin will elaborate how Bexter and partner Cohelion are developing new solutions to measure and monitor sustainability KPI’s.
NWPCA ANNOUNCES BOARD OF DIRECTORS LEADERSHIP AND ELECTION RESULTS FOR 2022-2023
April 5, 2022– Last month, the National Wooden Pallet & Container Association announced its Board of Directors leadership, and the addition of new and re-elected Board members.
The following individuals were confirmed as NWPCA’s Board of Directors leadership for the 2022-2023 term:
- Carolyn Beach, Westside Pallet – Chair
- Nick Wenner, Pallet Service Corp. – Chairman-Elect
- Mike Hachtman, 48forty Solutions – Past Chair
- Jeff Lewis, Atlanta Pallets – Treasurer
- Hinton Howell, Cottondale Wood Products– Director at Large
The following individuals were elected and re-elected to the Board of Directors:
Newly elected:
- Kate Matz, Allegheny Recycled Products
- Alex Jimenez, Jimenez Pallets
- Justin Hegsted, Challenger Pallet & Supply
- Jeff Lewis, Atlanta Pallet & Services
- Lindsey Shean-Snowden, Pallet Logistics of America
- Bruce Kennedy, Mid-Continent Steel and Wire
Re-elected:
- Dominick Davi, Greenway Products & Services
- Bryan Kesting, Madison County Wood Products
“I am honored to serve as the NWPCA’s incoming Chair, and I look forward to working with everyone on the board in the continued success of the NWPCA,” shared Carolyn Beach, Vice President, Westside Pallet. “This past year was a challenging one that proved the essential nature of our industry and showed the extreme effort of the 173,000 people who worked overtime to meet our customers demands. Moving forward, we are excited to meet pallet user needs for sourcing environmentally responsible materials, and will spotlight how our third-party certified environmental product declaration for wooden pallets advances supply chain sustainability goals. Wood pallets are positioned with their 95% recycle rate, and potential carbon positive impact.”
“Our industry greatly respects Carolyn’s leadership and strong focus on sustainability and supply chain solutions,” said Brent McClendon, president/CEO of the National Wooden Pallet & Container Association. “Her ability to build partnerships and her focus on advancing the board’s strategic priorities will move this industry forward.”
“We are also deeply indebted to Mike Hachtman of 48fortySolutions, who assumes the role as past-chair. He led the association and the industry forward during the covid crisis and greatly expanded our advocacy initiatives.”