CHEP signs Horizon Tissue as first customer in Estonia

CHEP, provider of pallet and container pooling solutions, has signed a contract with Horizon Tissue, the Estonian tissue converter and CHEP's first customer in that country.
 
Horizon Tissue will use CHEP pallets to exports its products to Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. This new partnership reflects CHEP's strategy for growth in Central & Eastern Europe.

 
Horizon Tissue (part of Tolaram Group from Singapore) produces toilet paper, kitchen towels, napkins, facial tissues and other tissue paper products under the Daisy brand. Its main markets are the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the Nordic countries, the Benelux region and Germany.
 
Horizon Tissue Chief Executive Officer, Enrico Galli said: "The purpose of the co-operation with CHEP is to improve our competitive edge by reducing expenditures on pallet management and logistics. We were investing a significant amount of money to buy our own pallets under the white wood exchange system to export our products, but getting pallets back was not cost-effective and the money we spent on pallets for foreign trade was basically lost."
 
"Now, with CHEP's pallet pooling solution, we're saving money on pallet management and maintenance. We only pay for the use of CHEP's pallets for shipment, and CHEP then uses its extensive network to redeploy those pallets at the point of delivery. We are currently in the process of expanding our market share in Latvia, Lithuania and Finland, and we are planning to work with CHEP to support us in our growth plans. Our customers have welcomed this decision warmly."
 
CHEP Central & Eastern Europe President, Rodney Francis, said: "Many multinational companies have made the decision to move operations into Central & Eastern Europe using the CHEP pallet pooling system after struggling with the inefficiencies and high costs of the white-wood pallet exchange system. We welcome Horizon Tissue to our customer base. I'm looking forward to the partnership continuing to develop as we work together to maintain efficiencies within the supply chain management process."
 
CHEP has been operating in Central & Eastern Europe since 1998 and is growing strongly in the region with existing operations in the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey. In November 2011, CHEP announced plans to expand its operations to cover seven additional countries: Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.