Company

Reusable containers for food shopping

As the latest survey results show, already 16% of Poles do food shopping online*. Trust in the e-grocer industry is growing and the growth rate of this market is currently estimated at 15-20% per year. Poles have less and less time and are increasingly open to new business models that increase their comfort of living. In the e-grocery industry, customers appreciate saving time and delivering their purchases home. The share of this industry in the total food trade in the country does not yet exceed 1% and operates mainly in large cities. Nevertheless, Poland is increasingly chasing Western Europe in this respect, and the offer and number of e-shops is growing.

E-grocery is a logistically demanding market. The biggest challenge is delivery. Apart from quick order processing, it is important to deliver products intact and with the quality guaranteed by a stationary shop. This is particularly important for fresh products such as vegetables and fruit, meat or dairy products. The possibility to receive articles properly secured and free of any damage can convince customers to use the internet regularly. It is important to simplify and automate operations at every stage of logistics - from the picking of products and the IT system to order processing, through convenient and ergonomic transport to the end customer. Solutions from Georg Utz, a manufacturer of plastic packaging, containers and reusable pallets, can help in this.

Georg Utz offers containers for automated warehouses, as well as for picking and delivery of foodstuffs to the customer's home. Our solutions are very durable and serve customers for many years. They can be supplied with the customer's logo and in the colour of your choice. The use of the reusable container system means a reduction in the number of boxes, which usually become waste to the customer after the goods are unpacked.

An example of a container for storage and internal transport is EUROTEC. This product is designed for automatic handling in all common storage systems. Thanks to special grooves, EUROTEC containers are ideally suited for handling by industrial robots, enabling them to be precisely fixed on automatic conveyors. The container comes in a wide range of sizes and bottom variants and colours. The properly selected type of bottom for the planned load of the container, eliminates the possibility of its bending and ensures proper movement on the conveyors. Additionally, the container can be equipped with special partitions, dividing into chambers, to facilitate the storage and picking of small food products. In the scope of reusable containers, which we are the producer of, the e-grocery industry often expects a universal solution, which on the one hand will work well with conveyors and automatic feeders, which are equipped with modern distribution centres, where order picking takes place. On the other hand, such a container should also enable the most ergonomic use during manual handling by couriers delivering orders to end customers. Protection against crushing, spilling or damage to foodstuffs is extremely important in this industry. That is why our containers are equipped with special holders for bags or partitions separating the different assortment from each other. Thanks to this solution, bags filled with purchases are placed inside the containers on special hooks, which guarantee the safety of transported food. This is a great advantage in relation to traditional, cardboard packaging, where e.g. a situation of spilling or crushing the product causes damage to the cardboard and its contents, and often also to adjacent packaging. In addition, stacked plastic containers do not destroy themselves under their weight, which may be the case with cardboard packaging.

For picking and delivering orders to the customer's home, the so-called 600 x 400 mm trapezoidal profile rotary containers, which can be stacked and transported one on top of the other, are ideal. After unpacking the contents, it is enough to turn the container by 180 degrees and we will reduce the loading area by up to 85%.

We also offer an Internet container with the dimensions of 600 x 400 x 243 mm. It is a light and durable container which can be successfully used in the whole process of online order processing - from the moment of picking in a shop or warehouse to distribution to the customer. An innovation in the case of the Internet is the use of interchangeable partitions, placed inside the container in special guides. In the upper edge of the container, special hooks for bags are also used. Thanks to these solutions it is possible to segregate orders and separate different groups of products - e.g. fresh fruit and vegetables from household cleaning products, as well as increase the safety of products during transport to the end customer.

Barcode labels can be applied to all Georg Utz containers, enabling the management of the distribution system and full control of the container cycle. The company also offers transport trolleys that are compatible with these types of containers.

*E-grocery report in Poland - online grocery shopping (Chamber of Electronic Economy)