Electronics retailer boosts ROI with plastic pallets

Each year Boulanger was spending in excess of €500,000 on wooden pallets for storing and transporting some 21,000 different home electronics products, which are sold through its 122 retail stores and online shop, but was experiencing a poor return on investment. The company was losing around 10 pallets every day as they were splintering or getting torn apart and not standing up to the frequent use required.

Looking to reduce the costs of goods handling, Boulanger contacted Belgian plastic pallet manufacturer SmartFlow, for whom Goplasticpallets.com is the sole distributor in the UK.

Sébastien Rombaut, logistics coordinator at Boulanger, said: "We need to maintain a regular flow of goods to our retail outlets and ensure that goods are stored and transported in the most environmentally and economically sound way possible.

"By switching to plastic pallets we’ve achieved a much better return on our investment – on average they hold up to 300kgs of goods and can be used up to 20 times, in comparison to the wooden pallets we used to use, which only lasted for about eight cycles.”

The plastic pallets that SmartFlow recommended nest when not in use, allowing them to be stacked up to 45 pallets high – three times more than Boulanger’s wooden pallets – saving valuable warehouse space, as well as saving room in transit. They are also much lighter and easier to handle weighing just 5.6kg each versus the wooden pallets that weighed 20kg each.

In addition, the plastic pallets can be picked up by a forklift on all four sides, which significantly speeds up the loading and unloading process.

Today, all three of Boulanger’s logistics sites are using plastic pallets embossed with the company’s logo to ensure the smooth delivery of goods to its retail outlets, and the safe return of the pallets to its warehouse for reuse.

Sébastien concluded: "With our new plastic pallets, our northern region is already making savings of €150,000 with our company as a whole generating savings of approximately €300,000 each year.”

If you’re not already insisting on plastic pallets in your supply chain, then perhaps it’s time you considered making the switch. Follow Pallet Evolution on Twitter @PalletEvolution or visit www.palletevolution.com to discover more.