Euro Car Parts is the UK’s leading distributor of car parts and accessories with over 200 sites across the country. With demand for its services higher than ever, the business has more than 500,000 branded totes in transit as it moves parts around the UK.
However, its main warehouse in Tamworth found itself accumulating over 20,000 totes, all heavily contaminated with oil and excessive labelling making them unfit for use. As well as creating an eyesore outside the warehouse, the unusable totes were causing the business a financial challenge.
phs Teacrate worked closely in partnership with Euro Car Parts to deliver a comprehensive collect and wash service for the totes, ensuring all 20,000 totes were thoroughly cleaned and dried and delivered back into operation in just 16 weeks.
The Teacrate team pre-booked weekly pickups of between 1,000-1,500 totes from the Euro Car Parts warehouse, which were taken away to be cleaned and dried using phs Teacrate’s quality wash process. They were returned ready for use the following week, when a new batch would also be collected to be cleaned.
Stephen Medland, General Operations Manager at Euro Car Parts, said: “The contaminated crates were a real challenge for us as a business. They couldn’t be recycled because of the oil and other substances on them and, as they are branded, we couldn’t sell them either. Other washing trials we tried hadn’t worked out and we were concerned that we’d have to make the huge investment of buying new crates.
“phs Teacrate came in and offered the ideal solution for us, ensuring our crates could be safely and thoroughly washed, dried and reused, meaning no new crates needed to be bought, saving the business thousands of pounds, and avoiding unnecessary landfill.
“We have been so impressed by the Teacrate team and they have become a valuable partner to us. The service has been fantastic. They are extremely patient and happy to work in a way that suits our business, supporting our booking system and always picking up and delivering in a timely, efficient way.
“The communication is always very good, both from the drivers who come to site each week to the account team themselves who made the process so smooth-running. They all have a great attitude and are good people to work with.
“We could not believe how quickly they worked through the crates to get them back into operations. They have processed over 300 pallets in just four months. Our site looks cleaner and more presentable, the access is much improved and, crucially, we got some valuable assets back into the business.
“We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with phs Teacrate with monthly pickups and cleans to ensure we stay on top of things and keep our crates in the best possible condition for the longest life.”
phs Teacrate is the market leader in crate supply and washing services in the UK, providing a nationwide service with sites including Manchester, Edmonton, Durham, Livingston in Scotland and Curdworth in Birmingham.
Part of the phs Group, it provides its customers with crate rental or purchase and a high quality, hygienic crate washing service. It moves over nine million crates a year and has capacity to wash over 600,000 crates per week nationally. It also supplies skates and packing equipment.