CHEP, the company dealing with the rental of logistical equipment and industrial pallets has been a key client of Waberer’s Logistics since 2003.  – We got in touch with Waberer’s in the year 2002, when we started to look for an appropriate place for the storage of our pallets.

Our cooperation started in 2003 on 1250 square meters, which in the beginning consisted of the collection, delivery, storage, selection and moving of the pallets. Starting in November of 2009 this service has been extended to the servicing of EUR size, and later, in July of 2010 with that of industrial size pallets - said Pawel Kaczmarek, the Director of operations responsible for the Central European region.  According to the Polish expert Waberer’s was able – and is still able today  - to offer the level of complexity needed for both warehousing and forwarding. – Waberer’s seemed to be the best choice at the time, and our cooperation – with the exception of a couple of minor issues - has been flawless.  With time and our continuous development the volume has increased significantly – added Mr. Kaczmarek. Therefore significant growth and improvement regarding the two companies’ common business has taken place mostly over the last two years. – The dynamic improvement of the initial years came to a stall in 2007-2008, when unfortunately there was a significant drop in the quality level of the logistical provider’s performance. This stall ended in 2009 with a complex change of approach, due to which the discrepancies between the two companies also vanished, a new management team was established and the processes were restructured. This was the year we started offering our pallet repair services for EUR size pallets with regards to 800X1200 CHEP pallets, on two repair surfaces – said Tamás Fábián, the logistical director at Waberer’s Logistics. In July 2010 the previously 1000 square meter large storage space was increased to 2000 by the logistical provider, due to the dynamically growing cooperation in Kozdulo. By early 2011 the existing storage space proved once again to be too  small, so in February of this year 1000 square meters and 2 new worktables, as well as a 45 -meter long band of rollers were added to the CHEP operation, which is now operating on 4000 sqare meters including the external areas.

Wide range of services

Waberer’s Logistics Ltd participates both in the warehousing as well as in the delivery side of the cooperation with CHEP. CHEP’s clients rent various sized pallets from the company, on which the partner’s goods arrive into the distribution centers and is delivered from there to the specific retail shop. When the pallet gets emptied in the stores Waberer’s Logistics Ltd – as defined by the contract -collects them and transports them to its own warehouse, which has grown to be one of CHEP’s largest service centers in central Europe.  – In our case the pallets is practically the product that needs to be delivered, so it happens occasionally, that we need to go to the other end of the country to pick up 4 pallets. We of course also have full truckload deliveries and collections as well – emphasized Tamás. Fábián. The pallets returned to the warehouse are sorted according to a given set of criteria, and thanks to the investments mentioned earlier the logistical provider not only inspects and handles the pallets but also repairs and services them, paints them and attaches the logo to the used pieces. Following the inspection those pallets, which are in good shape can continue to be delivered to the partners, and the ones not passing inspection are updated as needed by the service provider. The quality control process is defined by a rigorous set of criteria developed by CHEP. Due to this, as well to the efficient operation of Waberer’s Logistics there have been no complaints over the last year from any of the partners about any problems originating from the center run by the service provider.   
= So the pallets arrive back into our service center and not to CHEP, the original manufacturer for repair work. This value added service – which was established in October 2009 following a request from CHEP – has grown into a well prospering and manufacturing business venture for our company – said Viktória Kovács, a key account manager at Waberer’s Logistics Ltd. In 2010 the company repaired about 20.000 industrial size pallets despite the fact, that Waberer’s only started the operation in July.  
This year’s performance will exceed last year’s, according to our plans Waberer’s will have repaired 80.000 industrial size pallets by the end of the year. The band of rollers installed in February and the additional 2 worktables largely contributed to the substantial increase in volume, due to which the servicing of the EUR pallets has grown to almost one and a half times its original volume while that of the industrial size pallets has quadrupled.  
- We bill for the repair work and any expenses in connection with that directly to CHEP, and I can say that we every penny has always been accounted for between the two companies. By the way, annually
1-1,5 pallets are handled by the warehouse. The increase in volume can be tracked easily by looking at the incoming and outgoing pallets: in the case of the EUR pallets 2.5 times more leave our warehouse and return to us later. It is quite encouraging both for us as well as for CHEP that currently every EUR pallet in the country is inspected, serviced and redistributed by Waberer’s Logistics Ltd – pointed out Viktória Kovács.
They have managed to decrease the costs and improve the use of the lumber supplier:  while originally the lumber came from an international resource as of June a Hungarian partner supplies the raw material with a monthly delivery of 3-4 FTLs. This new agreement allows for a flexible planning and use of raw materials and timely deliveries.  On the transportation end CHEP has undergone a minor, but all the more important transformation. While until mid-2010 the logistical provider had only handled minor volumes in collection runs, since July of 2010 it has been in charge of the entire volume of collections iand distributions in the East Hungarian region. This means that within one year (in comparison to the year 2009) the volume has tripled and they provide pallets to such partners and collect pallets from them, who receive goods delivered on pallets on a daily basis. This year’s planned volume is about twice that of last year’s and there is room for further growth in the so far untapped regions.  

Innovation

The CHEP operation requires continuous growth and development from the logistical provider, which appears both in the volume as well as in the infrastructural background of the service. In the last few years Waberer’s has invested in some major infrastructure: last year’s addition of 8 new work tables as well as the 45 meter long roller band installed in February of this year are al examples thereof. They are planning a new investment for the end of this year, which entails the installment of a semi automated industrial chainsaw machine. This will in part improve the operational efficiency; in part it will make the continuous demolishing of the pallets not passing the quality control system implemented by CHEP possible, thereby minimizing the number of faulty pallets.   
Part of the developing and continuous improvement of the operation is the conscious planning process, so among the investments planned for 2012 you will find a sorting table, as well as a complex dying chamber, so we can double once again the number of the sorted pallets and that of our previous performance.
-This is a cooperative relationship, which is characterized by openness, a solution focused approach striving to be more efficient, along with doubling our annual profits. It is a perfect example of improvement and a well functioning business relationship – emphasized Pawel Kaczmarek (CHEP), Viktória Kovács and Tamás Fábián (Waberer’s Logisztika Kft.).