In the last few years, the demand for pallets has drastically increased in various sectors such as retail, food & beverages, chemicals, and others. Increase in technological advancements and the growing adoption of automation in the market is improving the demand in the pallets market. Pallets play a vital role in the supply chain. Due to this, the growing demand and development in logistics and warehousing facilities offer lucrative opportunities in the global pallets market.
The upsurge in the growth of the e-commerce industry increased the demand for pallets remarkably. Additionally, a growing focus on the development of sustainable pallets is expected to aid the market growth. According to Allied Market Research, the global pallets market is anticipated to grow at a significant CAGR of 5.1% from 2020 to 2027.
The construction industry has a huge demand for pallets for regular activities of storage and transportation of building materials such as blocks, bricks, and roofing tiles. According to a survey, it is found that around 90% of wooden pallets utilized in construction industries are used only once, and due to this, wooden pallets are a rising concern in the construction sector. The UK construction industry alone goes through around 18 million wooden pallets each year. Nearly 6,000 acres of forestry are required for the production of such an enormous number of wooden pallets, which poses a risk to forest preservation.
Market players in the UK are adopting strategic partnerships to address this growing concern of utilization of wooden pallets and provide a sustainable solution to the construction industry, thus allowing them to meet the green targets set by the government of the UK. Some leading market players in the UK pallet market collaborated to form a joint venture, pallet loop, to provide pallets to the construction industry in a circular approach. The initiative by Scott Group and Paul and Ryan Lewis offers unique green pallets which are two times stronger than traditional designs. It follows a recover, repair, and reuse model for the construction and building material supply chain, thus eliminating unnecessary pallet waste in the industry.
The demand for automation is increasing in several industrial sectors due to the rise in demand for improved customer service. For providing the correct variety of products to customers, it is necessary to have a good pallet system in the retail store network. This increases the demand for an effective pallet-build process at the warehouse level. The mixed SKU pallets should precisely hold what the retail location requires and reach the desired location on time and without damage. The system should optimize the volume of every shipment and pallet. With the growing inclination towards the e-commerce sector, there is a need to build an effective pallet build system or automated palletizers, which can pick and put the item in place while restoring the stock.
For the UK-based manufacturer of paints and wood care products, Crown Paints, it had become a challenge to have a system for an intelligent and well-organized way for pallet build because of their variety of requirements for stock restoration. The company has a huge network of crown decorating centers all around UK and Ireland. For years, Crown Paints has been using conventional handheld terminals for recording and storing the data for these centers restocking. Supply chain director at Decorative Europe Hempel, Darryl Senior, highlighted that they were experiencing a rise in mixed pallets and case picks in their warehouse, with improved frequency and smaller deliveries to their distribution network. This is where they found an opportunity to offer their customers a pallet for increasing their efficiency, productivity, and accuracy.
The Crown Paints integrated a set up of integrated voice-directed solutions with Körber’s warehouse execution system in their existing warehouse management system. The voice system offers various advantages, such as hands-free operation and easy-to-learn voice directions for the pallet builders, along with auto-cubing functionality. The voice system guides the operator with its automatically calculated cutting requirements, thus improving the speed and accuracy of the operations. In addition, the integrated system provides real-time performance visibility, which assists the company with high-level service offerings to its consumers.
The outbreak of covid-19 impacted the global pallets market. The imposed lockdown across various countries to curb the spread of the virus disrupted the global supply chain. Additionally, stringent regulations on import-export trade activities across the nations have disturbed the logistics activities in the initial days of the pandemic. Due to this, the demand for pallets has decreased in the market. However, as the world is getting back to normalcy, industries have started their operations which are expected to assist the market growth. The market is expected to recoup soon.
