PPS East Commences New Equipment Pooling Service Between Scottish Salmon Company and Belgium

PPS East, based in Grimsby has commenced a new contract, providing services for returnable fish crates to the Belgian company Levenstond Seafood who supply Belgium's leading supermarkets with Scottish salmon, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to PPS East.

At their new Grimsby site PPS has invested in state-of-the-art industrial wash lines where the used fish crates from Levenstond are washed, prior to being returned to Levenstond's salmon supplier in Scotland.

PPS, with wash sites both at Grimsby and Measham in the Midlands, has been successfully providing services on returnable plastic crates, plastic boxes and plastic pallets for many years to the UK food sector.

This new contract with Levenstond however, represents a breakthrough for PPS in an overseas market for returnable boxes where previously salmon had been transported in single-use expanded polystyrene (EPS) boxes.

PPS recently commissioned a report, carried out by the Humber Seafood Institute comparing the carbon footprints of respectively a one way trip EPS box and their returnable plastic fish boxes. Using the PPS boxes shows a remarkable 89% improvement versus the EPS box. (Use of the PPS box brings significant cost savings compared to the EPS box). Click here to view the report.

Previously, Levenstond were faced with the problem of disposing of the EPS boxes and have now asked PPS to contact another of their Scottish salmon suppliers with a view to providing them with a similar service for returnable fish boxes, again replacing EPS boxes.

PPS East was previously known as TFA Box Company until being acquired by PPS earlier this year. PPS also operates a large industrial wash site at Measham, where the company is known as PPS Midlands. The Midlands site services customers throughout the UK with emphasis on the poultry, dairy and retail sectors. The TFA acquisition introduced fish into the portfolio of industrial sectors serviced, but the management has expanded the Grimsby operation with significant investments in new plant and machinery.

The core business of PPS is that of the management of returnable transit equipment (RTE). This includes plastic crates and boxes, plastic pallets and bins or pallet boxes. PPS rents such equipment to its clients, manages it in the field or at third parties, collects used equipment and washes it to the highest standard (ISO 22000) before returning it to the equipment pool.

The two PPS sites have a combined total of over 30 years experience in equipment pooling and management and a client portfolio ranging from leading blue chip companies to smaller, family owned businesses. With the increasing popularity of returnable packaging in recent years and pressures towards sustainability in the supply chain PPS occasionally encounters companies offering similar pooling services who often do not have the infrastructure to support their claims. The Directors of PPS stress that they have the track record and will provide references or testimonials from existing long term clients to any new prospective customers.