Go To Market
Our common strategic approach includes the theme of “Go To Market”. We are investing in enhancing and developing the way we engage with our customers and partners by strengthening our brand position and by continuing to enhance the experience of our customers through improving the quality of our products and services. These programs are designed to improve our market reach and get us closer than ever to our customers, thereby strengthening our revenue streams and, ultimately, enhancing returns for shareholders.
Last mile solutions
One fundamental aspect of Brambles’ Go To Market approach is seeking to collaborate more closely with customers to deliver innovative solutions to their day-to-day challenges. Our work to develop solutions in the “last mile” of the retail supply chain between the retailer’s distribution centre and store is a key focus in this regard. Research that CHEP conducted in Europe has shown that a proliferation of packaging products exists in this crucial last leg of the supply chain, and that the lack of standardisation of these products is a drain on productivity and efficiency. Late in the 2011 calendar year, CHEP hosted a Last Mile Forum for more than 20 of its key consumer packaged goods customers and retail partners to explore opportunities to help them more effectively manage this complexity.The concept of a multi-retailer pool for merchandising and replenishment solutions is new, and CHEP is establishing this category by leveraging its existing network and extensive pooling capability. As a result, CHEP is seeking to accelerate its provision of existing products that offer last mile solutions, such as the popular quarter-size display pallets it provides to many customers in Europe, and to develop new and innovative products.Growth in the retail space across Europe has led retailers to expand in the profitable convenience sector. These stores are mostly located in highly populated areas, which adds complexity to general logistics activities. In Benelux, CHEP developed a plastic dolly platform with wheels that is used for rapid replenishment, both in-aisle and off-fixture as a promotional device. As an added benefit, the new dolly has a specific classification that reduces noise, thus enabling retailers to comply with noise abatement legislation, capitalising on the reduced transport costs for early morning deliveries whilst delivering the least inconvenience for their neighbours. Retail in Australia is focused on adopting an industry standard set of last mile formats. The use of retail display pallets is limited in Australia. In collaboration with major retailers over the last 12 months, CHEP developed a new pallet solution incorporating a range of new merchandising and handling benefits.The Beverage category is a major focus for improved last mile performance and in collaboration with retailers, manufacturers and key equipment suppliers, CHEP Australia will launch a new beverage tray into the market before calendar year end. This returnable tray development works with CHEP’s modular pallet range to provide solutions in a range of sizes, which suit different retail formats.
 


CHEP and Unilever carbon-neutral pilot in Spain
Brambles’ commitment to enhance the sustainability of its own operations and of its customers is an important part of the company’s Go To Market approach. During the 2012 financial year, CHEP and Unilever successfully completed the world’s first carbon-neutral pallet program in Spain. Unilever became the first company in the world to use carbon-neutral pallets in its supply chain, through CHEP’s reusable pallet pooling system. The efficiency and inherently sustainable characteristics of CHEP’s business model, which operates on the fundamental drivers of “reduce, reuse and repair” enable CHEP to offer customers a carbon-neutral service at a very reasonable cost. Under the program with Unilever, CHEP arranged the acquisition for Unilever of carbon credits sufficient to offset Unilever’s use of CHEP pallets in Spain for one year. After consulting with Unilever, CHEP invested these carbon credits in reafforestation projects in Tanzania on Unilever’s behalf. CHEP is now developing a commercial carbon-neutral pallet program to offer its broad base of customers throughout the Europe, Middle East & Africa region of the Pallets segment. CHEP developed the Unilever program after completing a comprehensive life cycle assessment of its products and services in Europe. The study, carried out under the ISO14044 standard that governs life cycle assessments, provided an accurate estimate of the emissions that would be generated in the sourcing, movement and repair of a CHEP pallet over the course of its useful life. CHEP Europe purchased carbon credits for Unilever through The CarbonNeutral® Company, a leading London and New York-based offset retailer of carbon credits. The credits were certified by The Verified Carbon Standard and The Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance.
Managed exchange
Brambles’ Pallets segment serves a wide range of customers throughout Europe, with varying logistics practices. As customer needs in Western Europe evolved, CHEP expanded “managed exchange” services. As an alternative to using CHEP’s pallet-pooling system under a “one-way trip” model (where CHEP issues the pallet from one of its service centres and takes it back when the customer has finished with it), CHEP facilitates the efficient exchange of pallets between pallet users in the field, without the requirement for those pallets to return to a repair centre every time. This enables CHEP to leverage its network scale to provide additional flexibility for customers, at the same time as reducing the amount of time the pallets spend out of use. The benefits of this flexible business model were realised in multiple European markets. In Benelux, CHEP grew its market share through strong retail advocacy and its ability to offer flexibility in both quality and price due to Managed Exchange. The UK business fully deployed Managed Exchange in March 2012 and realised an improvement in asset control. The Spanish business, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary in September 2012, grew in new sectors, through the delivery of the Managed Exchange solution to customers with divergent needs.