“In the onboarding process of Aldi UK as a new client, our biggest challenge was to manage the enthusiasm of growers and suppliers in the supply chain. They instantly recognised the benefits of working with Euro Pool Systems (EPS) and wanted to capitalise on these. This is a real luxury problem to have, as both Aldi and its suppliers were eager to increase their efficiency, productivity, and sustainability.”
Last year, EPS successfully completed a large volume contract with Aldi UK, a leading discount grocery retailer. Despite the challenging economic conditions both domestically and globally, Aldi UK is thriving. In line with their growth, they are committed to sustainability and optimising their supply chain. We are excited to be partnering with Aldi UK on this initiative and are currently implementing the contract and associated services.
Aldi UK chose to partner with EPS for several reasons. Our pooling services improve efficiency by reducing the number of trucks because of the higher nesting capabilities of our folding trays. But also, it reduces the amount of product damage compared to single-use packaging, provides more storage space and involves less congestion. For instance, using our green trays gives them a reusable option with the added benefit that they can stack twice as many trays in one vehicle. This means that for logistics alone, they can reduce the number of trucks and associated CO2 emissions by 50%.
The partnership with Aldi UK has an additional significance for us. While many retailers in the UK were already familiar with our services, having a physical in-country presence now enables us to showcase our offerings without requiring them to travel to the continent. We are confident that this will lead to further growth of EPS’s business in the UK. At the same time, we are equally excited to grow our partnership with Aldi UK. We are now jointly investigating which of their product ranges can benefit from our reusable trays and how we can match the growth of Aldi UK by providing the required capacity and network at our end. Working with Aldi UK is a real privilege, and our company values are well aligned.
Both Aldi UK and EPS are open-minded, innovative, and intrinsically motivated to work on sustainability. We have a similar experience of working with their suppliers and growers. They are all eager to adopt our methods and to collaborate with us. Of course, transitioning from one system to another takes time. We appreciate the agility, patience and trust within our partnership. Now that we all have experienced the initial benefits of working together, the next steps will be to collect data to use this to further optimise our approach.
The partnership between EPS, Aldi UK and its suppliers is not only a win in terms of sustainability, but it also ensures greater competitiveness - therefore, it is not just a sustainable choice, but also a smart business decision for all partners involved.
Read more on the sustainability report and its most important pillars: People, Planet, Partners.
Our people are the key assets of our business. We are committed to providing training and development opportunities to strengthen our teams in all regions. We take measures across the organisation to contribute to the health and safety of our employees.
We set the ambition to reduce the carbon footprint for each rotation of our trays and pallets by 20% by 2025, in comparison to the baseline in 2017. To achieve this goal, we are committed to strategic projects that focus on optimising logistics, green energy and our reusable carriers.
Innovation and partnering with customers are key to driving circularity in the supply chain further. Together with our partners, we are constantly working on innovations and deploying new tools and technologies such as the Internet-of-Things (IoT) and other traceability tools.
Download the full Sustainability Report 2022
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