According to DS Smith, the announced investment is in response to growing customer demand for corrugated cardboard by DS Smith customers in the region. The La Chevroliere facility is located close to the city of Nantes in the West of France and the €6M investment has been made to expand the size of the production space by 4,000 square metres.
New equipment includes a Bobst Mastercut 2.1 die-cut machine, and a cardboard pallet production line in the form of a 2,500 m² workshop is dedicated to the production of Kaypal cardboard pallets. The workshop has a capacity of 250,000 units, and a potential to produce up to 1.5 million pallets a year.
The Kaypal pallet is beneficial to DS Smith customers in that it is fully recyclable, ultra-light weight (3.5 kg), ergonomic, hygienic, economical, and reusable, with potential to significantly reduce carbon emissions during transportation. The sustainable product is also an ideal solution for the air transportation of products, floor, and point-of-sale (POS) displays, pallet boxes (bulk) or order preparation for retail logistics centres (interlayer pallets), due to its compact and ultra-light weight components.
Thibault Laumonier, Regional Managing Director, DS Smith, France, comments:
“The opening of our new Kaypal cardboard pallet production workshop in La Chevrolière will help our regional customers to move towards a circular economy, and with sustainable packaging options that impact positively on the reduction of CO2 throughout the entire supply chain. We are setting new industry standards in sustainable packaging and building a future that is more respectful of the environment that we live in.”