More efficiency and flexibility with the Paki voucher

tegut... gute Lebensmittel GmbH & Co. KG is represented in Hesse, Thuringia and Bavaria as well as in Göttingen, Mainz, Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg with 280 grocery stores. tegut... offers its customers around 25,000 different products. The company optimizes its logistics processes with more than 5,200 employees in order to create the necessary flexibility for everyday life and to be able to compensate for seasonal fluctuations. Since March of this year, tegut... has successfully relied on PAKi Services from Pooling Partners as a partner to ensure smooth processing.

For many years, tegut... has relied exclusively on Euro pallets to store its products. In the past, the company exchanged the pallets directly with the respective freight forwarder. "For us, the train-to-train exchange has been increasingly characterized by discussions on the ramp in recent years," says Claus Goldbach, Head of Logistics at tegut.... In some cases, the drivers wanted to sort the pallets themselves in the incoming goods or recyclables area, but this is not possible due to legal conditions. With the aim of making load carrier management more professional and simplifying processing, tegut... spent months comparing various solutions. "There are big differences between the competitors in terms of service and quality," says Goldbach. "For this reason, we took a close look at the issue, gained an impression from existing customers and involved our colleagues from Purchasing in the selection process. Pooling Partners made a trustworthy impression right from the start and convinced us." Goldbach continues: "The good reputation also played an important role in our decision."

PAKi pallet bill arrives

"An expansion of the cooperation is certainly conceivable and we look forward to further intelligent and efficient solutions from Pooling Partners." Claus Goldbach, Head of Logistics at tegut...

After initial discussions, the two partners converted a large part of tegut...'s pallet management to processing via the PAKi voucher within a few months. Since then, forwarders have had the choice of receiving a PAKi pallet voucher from Pooling Partners with a unique voucher number, which can also be transferred to third parties, instead of empty pallets when delivering goods. When this is redeemed at Pooling Partners, the pallets are credited and can then be bundled and collected as required in the desired quality from one of the 10,000 Pooling Stations across Europe or the pallets are delivered to the desired recipient. "The PAKi services have proven to be a convenient solution for both our suppliers and us. We were somewhat surprised by the high level of acceptance. The initially expected volume has now more than doubled," explains Moritz Ziegler, team leader of the dry goods warehouse at the Fulda site. Since the introduction of the new logistics solution, tegut... has benefited from simple processes in its day-to-day operations.

More space by balancing out seasonal fluctuations

The advantages of the PAKi voucher are visible at tegut... all year round, as the pallet stock is regularly subject to strong seasonal fluctuations. If, for example, large quantities of goods are delivered and stored before Christmas or Easter, there are hardly any empty pallets available during this period. However, this ratio changes quickly due to sales. "The space required for empty pallets after the various promotional weeks is enormous every time," says Moritz Ziegler. "Now Pooling Partners collects the empty pallets after notification by telephone and takes care of the return and provision of the pallets when they are called up by the suppliers or freight forwarders. In addition, we always maintain an overview via our pallet account."

Simple online entry and transmission of data via the customer portal.

In addition, tegut... appreciates the environmental friendliness associated with PAKi services. Pallet management guarantees that load carriers are used more frequently. In addition, the more than 10,000 pooling stations avoid empty transports. Claus Goldbach sums up: "Before the introduction, all suppliers were informed about the new option to exchange pallets on a move-by-move basis or to use PAKi. We then quickly introduced pallet processing with the PAKi solution from Pooling Partners and are very satisfied with the handling of the pallet bills. An expansion of the cooperation is certainly conceivable."

As the high level of acceptance among freight forwarders and suppliers shows, the company's efforts have paid off. "The immediate, positive response to the voucher confirms and even exceeds our expectations for the launch," reveals Klaus Dörr, Sales Director DACH for PAKi services at Pooling Partners. "We are already seeing a number of customers using the voucher for cross-border collaboration."

Freight forwarders currently still prefer the train-to-train exchange for the delivery of small-volume goods, while the other areas are already handled entirely via the PAKi voucher. "As this collaboration proves, our solution is proving its worth in the food trade in particular and is attracting a great deal of interest from other participants in the market," concludes Christian Kühnhold, Managing Director of Pooling partners for PAKi Services. "We greatly simplify our customers' processes and always make sure that they can rely on punctual collection and the right pallet quality at all times."

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