Work with the brewer began after a change to its primary packaging – the removal of the heat-shrink film around packs of cans and replacing it with a carboard sleeve – resulted in an increase in damaged goods caused during the transportation process.
Pallet stability tests at Lindum Packaging’s Innovation Centre revealed that the 568ml pack format suffered the most movement in transport issues.
Trials of different stretch films, wrapping patterns, anti-slip layer sheets and cardboard corners narrowed down a wrapping film and wrapping pattern that both increased pallet stability and was also easy to implement in the breweries without the need to make significant capital investment.
Maintaining sustainability goals
This new wrapping pattern did not use any additional weight of stretch film when compared with the original wrapping pattern, which helped to maintain the company’s sustainability goals.
Rick Sellars, sales manager at Lindum Packaging, said: “Movement in transport is a major issue in the brewing industry. The damaged packs can’t be resold and must be thrown away. This is a huge financial loss and also creates unacceptable food waste.
“Our Mobile Pallet Stability Test Lab and our Innovation Centre in Grimsby have both been developed to test and analyse the stability of pallets with the aim of reducing over-packaging, improving performance, saving money and reducing food waste.”
Lindum’s Mobile Pallet Stability Test Lab was also taken to the brewer’s site to verify that the pallet stability results at the brewery were equal to the trials that had been completed at Lindum’s Innovation Centre. Now, some months on from this implementation, there are no instances of movement in transport from this 568ml can format and it is no longer considered a major issue.
‘Not to be overlooked’
Sellars added: “With around 750 million pallet journeys every year in the UK and up to 11% of all palletised goods arriving at the final destination with some damage, movement in transport and the safe delivery of goods should not be overlooked.
“Most businesses we work with often know there is a problem within their packaging operations, and we work with them to identify and implement improvements that will make a big difference to their operations, transit packaging performance, sustainability targets and their bottom line.”
