Case study: SVENSKA

The Swedish pooling company has chosen Schoeller Allibert Maxinext + for fruit & vegetables, meet and fish supply chain.

Svenska Retursystem has a management system of returnable crates to grocery supply chain for distribution of fresh produce, meat, fish and bakery items from supplier to retail store. They have a clear mission: to administrate, operate and further develop the return system, so that it continuously will become even more efficient and easier to use.

Founded in 1997, the have a simple offer, they develop recycling systems based on crates and pallets that provides an effective supply chain from producer to wholesaler and finally to consomer in the stores. We believe that reuse instead of single use is one of the keys when working against the vast growing environmental impact. 

The initial issue

Initially huge variety of transit packaging from corrugated cardboard to wooden crates. The Swedish food industry was an early adopter of logistics systems based on returnable packaging, replacing single-use packaging, such as cardboard cartons, with returnable containers. Moreover thanks to a lack of uniform compatibility with automated handling equipment meant there was a potential for even greater efficiency.

Our MaxiNest Plus+ solution

The operation involves the entire supply chain, including manufacturers or producers, wholesalers and retailers in a environmentally-friendly and cost-effective system. Retursystem estimates that since introducing returnable packaging over 700 million items of disposable packaging have been replaced, with significant gains to the Swedish grocery system.

The crates are used in both manual and automated handling processes with over 1,000 customers ranging from major producers to small local suppliers. 

Main benefits

The MaxiNest Plus+ solutions is perceived to be more efficient, lower-cost handling throughout the supply chain a-with a resultant reduction in waste. For Retursystem, a key feature of the Maxinest+ is that it can be RFID-enabled at manufacture, which make them easy to track&trace through the supply chain, minimising losses and improving processing speeds.

Maxinest Plus+ range, which has 20 variations, meets the growing demand for equipment that works seamlessly with automated filling, weighing and handling technology:

  • Recess under bale arms allows access by robotic stack/nest systems

  • reinforced base designed for quiet, smooth operation on all conveyor types

  • Uniform position of labels and RFID across all models (prevents having to reposition scanning / reading equipment)

  • Multi-height options enable same tray to be used for a number of different applications.

Did you know

Since the beginning Retursystem has replaced more than 800.000.000 disposable cartons. Which is millions of disposable cartons every week. In total this provides a saving in stores in just over 940 MSEK. 

A store survey showed that the staff saves 45 minutes each day using returnable crates. If we assume that one person saves 45 minutes each day using returnable crates. If we assume that one person saves 45 minutes each day in all Sweden's 2646 grocery stores, this gives an annual saving of 724000 hours, equivalent to 145 MSEK in salary cost.

The system minimizes waste of food and damaged cartons which leads to more products arrives fresh.

The system reduced the pollution of CO2 with 44%.

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