Sustainable & Environmental Fish Crates

In a six-figure deal with Belgian company Levenstond Seafood, PPS delivers clean crates for operations at the Shetland-based seafarm, whose Scottish salmon products are supplied by Levenstond to Belgium’s leading supermarkets.

The Levenstond contract - involving Hjaltland Seafarms and Lerwick Fish Traders, subsidiaries of Grieg Seafood Hjaltland - is part of a major PPS drive to expand its Scottish operations.

Headed by two Scots, Iain McArthur and David Peggie, Edinburgh-registered PPS focuses on fish, poultry, fruit and vegetable producers. Now it is set to discuss a similar crate pooling contract with another fish farming company in the Western Isles.

“Our core business is the management of returnable transit equipment (RTE) including plastic crates and boxes, plastic pallets and bins or pallet boxes,” said McArthur. “We rent such equipment to our clients, manage it in the field or at third-party sites, collect used crates, plastic pallets and wash them to the highest standard before they are returned to the clients to be used again.

“While we have contracts in place with several Scottish-based companies already, this is our first with the fish farm industry. It is a breakthrough for PPS in the overseas market for returnable plastic boxes, too, as salmon would previously have been transported in single-use, expanded polystyrene (EPS) boxes.

“We are trying to boost business with companies in Scotland, offering them a sustainable way to transport their goods without the waste EPS boxes creates. So this contract with Levenstond is an excellent start to 2011 for us.”

As part of its strategy for this year, the company commissioned a report that compared the carbon footprints impact of single-trip EPS boxes and PPS returnable plastic fish boxes. This showed that PPS’ boxes produced an 89 per cent improvement on the carbon footprint issue and significant cost savings for companies.

“The popularity of returnable packaging is growing alongside pressures for sustainability in the supply chain and we can offer a comprehensive, tried and tested service in this sector,” said McArthur.

With existing centres in Grimsby and Measham in the Midlands, PPS can call on 30 years' experience of equipment pooling and management. It is not ruling out the possibility of setting up a washing plant in Scotland at some stage.

“PPS has earned a good reputation for its services in the returnable transit equipment (RTE) sector,” said a spokesman for Levenstond Seafood. “We are pleased this contract between ourselves and PPS is now under way.”