FDBusiness.com

CHEP, provider of pallet and container pooling solutions, has announced that consumer packaged goods company Procter & Gamble (P&G) will convert its remaining white pallet flows to CHEP’s pooled pallet system in seven additional countries in Central & Eastern Europe.

The strategic collaboration covers Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the seven countries in Central & Eastern Europe into which CHEP announced its expansion in November 2011 in response to its customers’ needs and growth plans.

P&G is a member of the Fortune 500 and is the largest consumer packaged goods company in the world. Under the agreement, CHEP will provide P&G with approximately 2 million pallet flows annually throughout Central & Eastern Europe.

CHEP Vice President of Global Accounts, John Riley, said: “We’ve enjoyed a very close relationship with P&G for many years. This agreement fits CHEP’s strategy of offering a broader set of pooling solutions and expanding into new geographies while responding to the needs of one of our most valued customers. In my mind, it’s an excellent example of a two-way partnership.”
CHEP has been operating in Central & Eastern Europe since 1998, delivering double digit growth over the five years to 30 June 2012. Prior to the November 2011 expansion, CHEP Central & Eastern Europe already had operations in Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.

CHEP Central & Eastern Europe President, Rodney Francis, said: “Multinational companies have made the decision to move operations into Central & Eastern Europe using a CHEP pallet management system that meets their needs for operational efficiencies and cost reduction in an environmentally-friendly manner. Many of them have turned to CHEP after struggling with the inefficiencies and high costs inherent in the white exchange pallet system. P&G is a good example.”