Palletisation Company of the Month
Beat the new plastic tax: Reduce plastic and lower costs with Lock N Pop pallet stabilisation
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n this issue of Industrial Process News, we are delighted to select Gransden UK as our Palletisation Company of the Month.
Gransden UK is the sole UK and Ireland distributor of the Lock N Pop pallet stabilisation systems, primarily known for reducing plastic pallet wrap and enhancing pallet stabilisation. The Eastern-based company has been supplying the Lock N Pop solution to customers across the industrial and food and beverage applications for over twenty-five years. Originally known as Lock N Pop UK Ltd the company has had various names, from Green Adhesives to Gransden Packaging Line Products Ltd in 2010 and then to Gransden UK Ltd in 2023. Throughout all the name changes, a core team from the early days remain alongside some longstanding service engineers, showing consistency of long-term staff at the heart of all operations. We spoke to Director Duncan Potter for more insight into this industry-leading company, “We specialise in the Lock N Pop technology, as the exclusive supplier across UK/Ireland. This is a water-based cohesive used for pallet stabilisation, applied on the production line prior to goods palletisation. We provide everything: machines, cohesive and full-service support, with service engineers stationed around the country.”
“Gransden UK works in the process machinery industry, on production lines in the food and beverage sectors. Our technology is used in the automatic palletisation area of these type of plants.” “We are always interested in talking to customers using robotic or automatic layer palletisation at the end of production processes. Our solution works well with boxes, shrink wrap packs or sacks. We specialise in all products but have seen a real increase in the last eighteen months from customers palletising bagged products, often animal feed, chemical or industrial products such as cement bags.” With the UK Government’s 2050 net-zero targets and a greater push towards the circular economy, all eyes are on sustainable best practices. With this in mind, Lock N Pop is seen as the sustainable solution of choice across the industry for the following reasons: ■ Lock N Pop reduces the need for plastic pallet wrap ■ Cost-effective under the new UK Plastic Tax (Plastic Packaging Tax PPT): introduced in April 2022 ■ The definitive environmentally-friendly solution: cold, water-based and plastic-free ■ Contains no hazardous, heated components or plastic consumables. The Lock N Pop pallet stabilisation solution simply saves money, by removing the costs associated with palletised goods moving or collapsing in transit to end-customers.
The primary focus on streamlined production process efficiency and the end transit journey to high street shelf, distribution centre or even across international waters or airspace has been paramount and has afforded Lock N Pop goldstandard industry recognition. In the current global recession, budgets are tight, yet demand is high and with the focus on sustainability, Lock N Pop offers the triple solution: cost-effective, transit safety and the greener choice. But how does it work? Lock N Pop pallet stabilisation uses a cold, water based cohesive, that is carefully applied inline to the cases, bags, shrink-wrap trays etc. immediately before palletisation. The cohesive has high shear strength characteristics which binds the products together, resulting in a stable pallet. However, the additional bonus is that the cohesive combines this high shear strength with a low tensile strength, meaning that the items can easily be separated. So, stable in transit but easy to separate at distribution centres and end users. Lock N Pop is widely regarded as the ‘Invisible cohesive,’ – the ability to leave products unmarked is fast becoming paramount, as more and more customers need to be able to place products straight from pallet to shelf in retail ready packaging. As the requirement increases for higher levels of printed artwork on outer case packaging the ability to palletise and transport securely without damaging the presentation of the product is becoming a bigger requirement of food and beverage manufacturers. “Looking to the future, we are investing in our sales and service staff to take advantage of the growing requirement of companies to move away from plastic based consumables and find a lower cost, environmentally positive solution for pallet stabilisation.” “We are on a mission to convert the industry to our sustainable, water based, low-cost solution. Lock N Pop is the definitive sustainable choice for pallet stabilisation,” concludes Duncan. For more information, contact Gransden UK Ltd: 01728 726621 07516 683314 locknpop@gransden.org www.locknpop.co.uk
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