Returnable Fish Boxes for Icelandic suppliers Sealord
PPS East, a returnable packaging rental company in Grimsby has recently started providing plastic 15kg fillet boxes for Icelandic cod and haddock producers who supply to Sealord in Caistor.
Sealord is the key processor of white fish to major retailer Waitrose, and with this new system Sealord now receive their sea freight shipments of fresh fillets from Iceland in these durable plastic boxes. A proportion of these fillets are subsequently smoked at the Grimsby-based Keith Grahams.
The quality of the fish being delivered has improved when compared to the previous bulk packaging used, as the fillets are now packed into smaller volumes, and ultimately this has even resulted in a cost saving to the customer.
PPS East recently appointed Icebox Ehf as their agents in Iceland. Icebox, with offices and warehousing facilities in Reykjavik place weekly orders with PPS for the supply of boxes. These in turn are supplied by Icebox to the fish producers in Iceland for subsequent sea freight to Grimsby.
Kate Williamson, of PPS East said “We have formed a close relationship with Sealord during the implementation of this and other projects. They are a very forward thinking business who want to maintain the greatest quality fish, plus they are every conscious to always reduced their waste packaging which is excellent. We are using this as a springboard to grow this part of our business, and have made trips to Iceland over the past few months, plus exhibited at the recent IceFish Seafood exhibition where we made a number of new contacts.”
Keith Brown, Managing Director at Sealord commented “We have enjoyed working with Kate and other members of the PPS East team to get this project underway. We have for some time wanted to look at alternative ways keep our top quality fresh fillets protected throughout their delivery to us, and with this returnable box system, we find ourselves gaining not only better results but also a cost saving”.
Completing the whole packaging system, PPS East also supply high quality plastic pallets to carry these 15kg plastic boxes. Plastic pallets were chosen due to their hygienic properties for the intake into factory areas, and are easily hygienically washed by PPS.
PPS East, is currently working with a number of businesses in the fish and seafood sectors to look at opportunities to convert single-use packaging or bulk bins to returnable fish crates. The company has state-of-the-art industrial washing lines to clean all returned plastic boxes at a modern factory conveniently located to service local businesses. Although predominately involved in the fish and seafood sectors, is now looking at opportunities to provide services connected to returnable transit packaging to other food sectors.
24/11/2011
