Forklift News - Europallet production begins

Victorian pallet manufacturer Fisher’s has launched a new side to the business – manufacturing high quality Europallets, used in the export of product to Europe.

The company, owned by Lew Fisher, is the only manufacturer in Australasia to be granted the licence, and Fisher anticipates a significant growth to the business as a result. Its current output of wooden pallets is around 400,000 per year, but Fisher hopes the new pallets will increase total production to over a million a year.

"We’re still in the marketing phase," he tells Forkliftaction.com News, adding he is in talks with several multinational companies which have expressed interest in the product.

He explains that Australian companies wishing to export palleted product into Europe should use fully approved Europallets that do not attract a disposal fee at destination.

Previously, Australian exporters would have had to purchase Europallets second-hand from goods coming in, which led to problems with quality and quantity, reports Fisher.

At an average cost of AUD25 per pallet, the Europallet is bought not hired by the exporter, and is able to be sold back into the Europool of pallets overseas, thus enabling exporters to recoup some of the cost involved.

The Europallet is manufactured to strict specifications in terms of its dimensions and moisture content of the soft timber used. Even the nails used in the manufacture are high specification Europool-approved nails, says Fisher, adding that the high quality criteria ensure the pallet can be reused many times over.

"The company also has modern kiln facilities which heat pallets at 56 degrees centigrade for 30 minutes to destroy all probable wood pests before pallets are despatched for use," he adds.

Fisher says that the European Pallet Association (EPAL), which controls and promotes the use of Europallets, is undertaking auditing of manufactured pallets at his factory this week, following which he will begin sales and distribution of the pallets.

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