Retailquip has launched a new returnable load carrier concept, called the L-Crate, developed by engineers at Finland-based leader in the global returnable load carrier market, K Hartwall.
The L-Crate provides a way of transporting non-self supporting goods to the place of sale with minimal staff involvement in setting the goods up for direct display in the retail space.
Retailquip, the Asia Pacific partner for K Hartwall, launched the L-Crate to the Australian market last week at Packaging & Processing Week in Sydney, held in conjunction with the AIP National Conference.
Tom Hart-Davies, managing director at Retailquip, said the concept was designed following a request from one of the world’s largest UHT packaging manufacturers for a major project with one of the UK’s largest dairy companies.
“The concept is rapidly moving toward large scale commercialisation and is being recognised as a simple and effective tool for combining logistics with merchandising.
“From its very early stages of development we believed it has potential for a wide variety of SKUs in our market and we have worked with K Hartwall and interested Australian companies to project a 1/6 Australian pallet footprint of varying wall height suitable for juice, fresh dairy, UHT, eggs with the most current interest being cleaning products.
The list of possible SKUs the L-Crate can be used for is extensive, says Hart-Davies, with benefits including excellent protection of product in the supply chain; the ability to reduce the primary packaging requirement as each layer is supported and protected; and the obvious plus of completely removing the secondary packaging requirement.
Hart-Davies says it has the added advantage of giving retailers the ability to control sell down of date-sensitive product by removing the opportunity for “cherry picking” of packs with longest use-by dates, as layers cannot be shopped until the exposed facing is used.
“It also provides excellent return logistics with a 5:1 nested ratio. The L-Crate is a true roll-in, one touch merchandising option, significantly reducing shelf replenishment costs.”
