British manufacturer supplies reusable 'green' crates to Australia's removals industry

British-based reusable crate manufacturer Advanced Crates has despatched its first consignment of specialist computer transit crates to Western Australia's Box n' Crate Hire company. The deal is significant as reusable transit packaging (RTP) is a relatively new concept in Australia, only having been used extensively by the removals industry since 2007.

 
Gabriele Haag-Green who heads up Box n' Crate Hire said, "We identified the need to add a specialist IT product to our standard rental range but rather than investing a lot of capital in tooling to manufacture our own, we decided to look for a supplier. We found what we were looking for on the Advanced Crates website in the UK, the IT3 was ideal for our purposes - from there the procurement process was quick and simple. The strength in the Australian economy and favourable exchange rates only served to make a good deal even sweeter. Now we're looking forward to taking full advantage of the growing demand for RTP in Australia now that it's been recognised as an economical green solution by our customers."
 
John Mitchell, sales director at Advanced Crates and sister distribution company Pluscrates explained that the high cost of tooling is very often prohibitive for companies to manufacture their own specialist crates, especially in a developing market. "It simply doesn't make sense for companies to commit high levels of capital for tooling unless the volumes are sufficiently high to make it viable. With a product like the IT3 that's unlikely to be the case in a local market and it makes better economic sense to source them from a volume manufacturer like Advanced Crates and put the capital directly into stock."
 
Reusable Plastic Packaging was first adopted by the UK commercial relocation industry in the early 1970s and gradually replaced the traditional tea chest as the main mode of transit packaging. Crate rental quickly became a major part of the commercial moving industry and the trend has continued in parts of Europe, the USA and now Australia.
 
Surprisingly RTP has not so far been widely adopted elsewhere in the world and corrugated cardboard has remained the packaging material of choice for most moving companies.  However, with ever increasing pressure from governments around the world to reduce waste and the public's increased awareness and demand for environmentally friendly practices the market for RTP looks set to rocket.