Foldable roll container with adjustable sides

Here, K. Hartwall explains how the development came about:

While meeting with customers in Brazil, we came into talks with a major discounter retailer, active in the greater Sao Paulo region as well as many other areas around Brazil. In their logistics operations they use demountable roll containers with low sides and height extensions for deliveries to stores.

The concept is good: during order picking at the DC, heavy items such as milk, soft drinks or beer are loaded on the base. On top are loaded light goods such as toilet- and household paper or other toiletries. With this system the loading height can go up to 2m and the truck's cubic fill is optimised.  When the goods are delivered to the store, light items are unloaded, and the height extension parts are removed. The roll containers - only equipped with the low sides - can be used as display units for the heavier goods. No need for time-consuming replenishment, the goods are ready to sell!

The down side is that the demountable unit consists of 5 loose parts: the base, two sides and two extension parts. It becomes a challenge to handle all these parts separately in reverse logistics. To make it worse, the different parts don’t stack efficiently when empty so the returned parts take space in the stores, trucks and back at the DC.

As these roll containers are made of smaller parts they get easily stolen or lost. Some of the parts can be subject to innovative 'recycling' and start a new life as BBQ-griddles, hen house fences and so on. This represents a big cost every year.

Based on our discussions we introduced Foldia as a solution. We developed a model with lower side walls and readiness to attach the height extensions to them. It was proven to be a good unit but still the issue with loose parts was not solved.

Using our past experiences, we got an idea and came back with a Foldia Roll Container equipped with adjustable sides, the Foldia Plus. As space in stores is very limited every square meter needs to be used most efficiently, which is already a given with Foldia’s excellent space saving and storage ability.

The unit offers a similar cubic fill as the old demountable unit. When the sides are up it is used as a transport unit; when they are down it works as a display in the store.

The unit is foldable, not demountable so no more loose parts. In return logistics, 4 Foldia Plus are neatly and easily put inside an open one, giving a 5:1 empty ratio. This also makes the handling easier at the DC with nice 'packages' instead of different bundles of roll container parts not always matching each other.

The customer wanted to test this unit thoroughly so a trial batch of 50 units was produced and shipped to Brazil. The tests are now ongoing and the feedback from operators is positive.

At the same time, a delegation from a leading Peruvian retailer, Supermercados Peruanos, visited Brazil to collect ideas for developing its store logistics. They saw the Foldia Plus and immediately realised that it was a good solution for their discounter chain, Mass.

We are now delivering Foldia Plus to the Mass stores and have more units on their way to Peru.

IMHX 2019, Stand 9B35