Colruyt Group made transition to green folding crates for fruit and vegetable

Colruyt Group, retail group of food and non-food formats, replaced the blue folding crates for fruits and vegetables with the green crates since mid-August. These crates are used to transport goods from the supplier to the freshmarts of Colruyt Group's food stores (Okay, Colruyt Lowest Prices, Bio-Planet and Spar Colruyt Group).

During the folding on the return trip, four crates take up as much space as one old crates, which allows sending only 200,000 pallets back to return centers instead of 700,000 per year.

Martine Pauwels, Colruyt Group Logistics Manager, said, “Cost-saving, efficient and environment-friendlier. So, the new green folding crates are greener, literally and figuratively speaking.”

The transition to green folding crates was carried out in cooperation with the logistics partner Euro Pool System (EPS), a provider of reusable packaging in the European fresh supply chain. The replacement to the green folding crate is the ultimate result of a long-term collaboration between the two Groups, making the entire fresh chain more sustainable.

Dirk Vercammen, Regional Manager for Western Europe at Euro Pool System, commented: “We are pleased to realise the transition from the blue crate to the green folding crate with Colruyt Group. This fits in with EPS's total plan to switch the entire fresh food supply chain in the Benelux to the latest folding crate.”

Colruyt Group stand out by clearing the crates in its own return center, which saves transportation to an external washing machine. Thus, the retailer completes the circle. Suppliers can take back clean crates to refill them with store products.

With the arrival of new crates, a retail group is investing in a new crate washing installation that will be ready in 2021.

Colruyt Group is a family business that has grown over three generations into a retail group with more than 30.000 employees and a diverse portfolio of food and non-food formats, in Belgium, France and Luxembourg.

For more information, visit the Group’s website.