Thank You!
Advances in packaging technology continue to provide cost savings across the board for manufacturers, distributors, and end-users. These latest innovations that protect shipments with lighter, less bulky materials are more important than ever before as freight and warehousing costs continue to rise.
Listening to concerns from its distribution partners, Badger Paperboard developed a chipboard auto-palletizer (AP) sheet to replace outdated corrugated pallet sheets. Compared to corrugated sheets, AP sheets cost 30 percent less per sheet. In addition, this dramatically reduced freight and warehousing costs lead to huge cost savings for end-users.
“We have been offering our new Badger AP sheets for about 18 months, going through extensive testing and running production trials,” says Chad Kravick, Vice President at Badger Paperboard.
The results have been extraordinary. “I had a distributor partner call about replacing corrugated pallet sheets with chipboard pallet sheets at a very large dog food company in Kansas City,” says Kravick. “They had been using corrugated sheets on an automatic palletizer and had been doing that for 10 years. I flew out and made a joint call with the rep, and we took samples of our Badger AP sheet. The sheets ran flawlessly, no multiple pick-ups, no line shutdowns.”
Most importantly, the sheets shaved off significant costs. “The end-user liked the fact that we saved over 30 percent on their annual sheet spend, “says Kravick. “For this end-user, that resulted in over $120,000 in savings. By introducing this new option to the customer, the distributor rep was able to secure the business and grow the relationship.”
In addition, chipboard is a better substrate for preventing puncture damage to the bottom layer of product on a pallet – and it may even be more hygienic, considering current concerns about the spread of COVID-19 and its variants. The National Institute of Health determined that porous substrates like chipboard do not hold the COVID-19 virus as long as solid surface substrates. The virus can live up to 24 hours on porous surfaces but up to three days on other types, such as plastics.
What about freight and warehousing costs? A truckload of corrugated sheets, which is about 6,000 sheets, currently fits on 22 pallets. In contrast, Badger Paperboard can pack the same number of chipboard sheets onto just two pallets. “Freight costs tripled in 2020,” says Kravick, “so reduced shipping costs are a huge benefit.”
With so many advantages, it’s no wonder that Kravick has seen so much success with encouraging distributors to pitch the switch to end-users. “As far as switching to pallet sheets goes,” says Kravick, “it’s really a no-brainer.”
To request a sample AP sheet from Badger Paperboard, click here.
