The Best Business Service Partner in Supply Chain Excellence at the FreshAwards 2018 award was given to Polymer Logistics, a leading international provider of ‘One-Touch/Retail Packaging (RRP)’ Solutions. The FreshAwards presentations were held at the Pavilion at the Tower of London on Tuesday, the 5th of June 2018. The gala evening drew around five hundred attendees, and was hosted by Shane Richie, popular TV actor and presenter.
“All FreshAwards winners and finalists are trailblazers for the industry, setting a high standard of excellence,” said Nigel Jenney, Chief Executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium. “The FreshAwards are the ultimate accolade from the UK fresh produce industry. We are delighted to recognise strong leadership, innovation and business acumen among this year’s finalists and winners.”
Polymer Logistics competed against a broad range of companies that support the fresh produce and floral sector, including providers of packaging, logistics, IT, machinery and more. The winning entry of Polymer was Cleanpal, the hygienic reusable pallet that weighs only half as much as a dry wood pallet while performing substantially above its class. Innovative Cleanpal pallets are poised to offer urgently needed supply chain improvements in terms of cleanliness, space utilisation, ease of handling, reduced environmental cost impact and cost savings.
Cleanpal was used in a ten-month project that involved a full-time team of ten employees and a significant investment. Harvest workers enjoyed the ease of pallet handling in the field, while operators appreciated the easy fork entry. The free underdeck provides a larger opening than found in wooden pallets. No shifting or loss of palletised product was recorded, as load stability was enhanced by the use of interlocking trays.
Material handlers remarked on how Cleanpal can be easily lifted and stacked manually, as well as nested to optimise the space utilisation. Three times as many empty pallets can be transported on a single lorry and only a third of the storage space is required.
