LPR-La Palette Rouge, the pallet-pooling specialist, has confirmed its growth in Europe with three new contracts as well as through expanding into the fruit and vegetable sector. Growth has been aided through extension of existing customer relationships, as well as leveraging its new relationship with vegetable crate rental company Euro Pool System.
La Palette Rouge has signed three new major European contracts. Starting in April, the Danish brewing conglomerate Carlsberg Group will be using LPR in England as well as in Spain and Portugal, where the existing contracts have now been renewed. Kronenbourg, which has been part of the Carlsberg Group since 2008, has worked with La Palette Rouge in France for more than seven years. The European pallet-pooling specialist will now be working for both Kronenbourg and Carlsberg in France, Spain, Portugal and the UK, from the production sites of the two brands to the different distribution hubs. This new contract underlines LPR’s increasingly trans-European profile, a process that started several years ago.
In February, LPR signed a contract with McBride, the leading private label company, to assist with its procurement and distribution flows in Benelux, Germany, Spain, Italy, the UK and France. Earlier, in November 2012, General Mills, the owner of the Green Giant and Old El Paso brands, among others, also chose LPR to handle its products in France, Spain and the UK. With these new contracts, LPR expects to handle an extra 4 million pallet movements in 2013.
Two other contracts are helping La Palette Rouge meet its goal of double-digit expansion in the fruit and vegetable sector in 2013: one in February with Savéol, the leading producer and distributor of tomatoes, and another in January with Agrial (a grouping of agricultural cooperatives) and its Priméale brand,which was already a customer of Euro Pool System.
“When we became part of the Euro Pool System Group in October 2011 we not only gained extra business with the return of Euro Pool System’s trays on LPR’s pallets, it also helped us penetrate the European fruit and vegetable sector, because of the resulting operational and commercial synergy,” comments Hervé Fourcade, LPR’s Commercial Manager for France.
“In addition, by sharing some of our reverse logistics flows we are able to improve service quality for the customers we have in common while also reducing the number of trucks on the roads.”
Over the last few months, the two companies have pooled their collection of plastic trays and pallets for major retailers in Belgium and for others in Spain. As a result of the new organisation, trucks delivering goods to distributors no longer return to base empty but loaded with pallets, trays or both.
“Our aim is to extend this service to the whole of Europe,” confirms Fourcade.
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