Ainsworth Pet Nutrition®, America’s oldest family-owned petfood company, has switched from wood pallets to plastic pallet solutions, selecting iGPS Logistics as its new national shipping platform. The selection of iGPS plastic pallets followed an extensive 14-month testing process involving examination of five different shipping platforms in real-life scenarios. Ainsworth Pet Nutrition conducted the tests with several of its own products at various weights and with a number of packaging materials.The evaluation included palletizing, shrink wrapping, stacking and slip-sheet removal, transportation, and general forklift handling.
“There were big advantages to making this conversion from wood pallet systems to iGPS plastic pallets,” says Tim Crum, Continuous Improvement Manager for Ainsworth Pet Nutrition. “These pallets are a higher-level quality and will bring some significant cost savings to us through human and food safety initiatives and reduction to damaged products.
“For example, the lighter weight of the 48x40 iGPS plastic pallet will allow more product weight on a truck versus pallet weight. Also, by eliminating the need for bottom chipboard sheets, and our freight advantage, we will realize significant hard savings direct to our bottom line.”
Based in Meadville, PA, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition has long prided itself on using only the highest-quality, simple, natural ingredients in all of their healthy petfoods and treats. By electing to ship their products using iGPS Logistics plastic pallets, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition says that it will enhance the safety of these products and bolster its standing as the first pet food manufacturing company in the U.S. to receive a Facilities Food Safety audit rating of Excellent from the Safe Quality Foods (SQF) Level II International auditing standard in accordance with the Global Food Safety Initiative.
