2015 in pictures

As 2015 now draws to a close it is time to look back on the year here at PPS. It has been an eventful 2015, we began the year settled into our premises here at Marchington. 

With new members of the PPS team starting throughout the year, our sales team grew in April with Hannah joining as Sales Advisor, handling enquiries and quotes along with social media and marketing aspects. After a busy Easter period the spring drew to a close and we welcomed summer with open arms, the accounts department greeted Diane to their team as Accounts Administrator to handle invoicing and credit control.

Into summer the temperature are really started to hot up as we prepared for the Meat Up exhibition held at Stoneleigh park, it happened to fall on the hottest few days of the year. An event for the whole meat industry to come together to see the latest innovations and technology alongside competitions.  

During August Charlotte was introduced to the Operations department working alongside Andy Moss our Operations Manager in running the day to day logistics of deliveries and collections, booking in drivers and handling stock control from our 24/7 wash site. We also redesign our lorry curtains which are part of the Jeffreys Haulage fleet.

As the summer drew to a close we were thrilled to announce the news of PPS acquiring Alison Handling Services, an exciting venture increasing the services of the PPS group. Alison Handling stocks 1000’s of plastic products suitable for a multitude of industries from bakery trays to pallet boxes to plastic dollys, all available on a next day delivery.

In September PPS attended the Movers and Storers show, a key exhibition in the Removals Industry held at Silverstone racetrack. The show was held over two days and consisted of keynote seminars held in the learning zone. Another successful event enjoying the company of both new and current customers. We also had the pleasure of staying in a Snoozebox, a 40ft container made into four bedrooms perfect for short stays.

September was a huge month for our Grimsby operation with the move to our new warehouse facility, almost tripling the size of our wash site. To celebrate, our open day was held to coincide with the World Seafood Congress of which we had the pleasure of welcoming Pete Ward, CEO of Youngs to cut the ribbon.

After introducing our Re-Fresh box to the fish industry in May at the Seafood Expo in Brussels, it was then released for purchase, rental and wash to industries including food, automotive and pharmaceutical. A brand new machine was also installed design to specifically wash the new box and lid to BRC standards.  

With an increased focus on waste throughout 2015, it is sure to continue to receive strong focus into 2016. Our MD Joanne Moss spoke with Food Manufacture to discuss returnable transit packaging in the food industry, inevitably reducing waste in the supply chain. Click here to read the article.

We wish all of our customers a very happy Christmas and look forward to welcoming many more of you on board during 2016.

Do you use Instagram? Follow us via @PPSMIDLANDS for our images throughout 2016.

Meet the team- Lisa Stephenson

Lisa Stephenson - PPS

Name?
Lisa Stephenson.

When did you join PPS?
1st July 2013.

What is your role at PPS?
Accounts Administrator.

What was your first ever job?
Dish Washer at a local hotel.

How do you take your tea?
With milk.

What is your favourite food?
Croissants.

What are your hobbies?
Reading and going to the cinema.

Meet the Team - Paul Durrant

Name: Paul Durrant

When did you join PPS?
Monday 4thJuly 2011

What is your role at PPS?
Operations Manager

What was your first ever job?
General Mechanic Ground Support Equipment in the Royal Air Force

How do you take your tea?
Normally in a cup, but white no sugar

What is your favourite food?
Curry, Spag bol, Steak with peppercorn sauce, any type of kebab, might be why I need to lose weight.

What are your hobbies?
Golf, cycling, DIY(more of a chore than a hobby), watching my son play football

A New Face at PPS East

Following Peter Davey’s retirement from PPS East, we are pleased to announce that Lisa Stephenson has joined the company in July as Accounts Administrator.

“I am delighted to be a new addition to the team at PPS” said Lisa, who went on to say “I have previously worked in the fish industry for several years so I am quite used to the lovely smell of fish!” Lisa will look after the administration of the business supporting Kate Williamson (Business Development) and Paul Durrant (Operations). Outside of work, Lisa’s husband and two children keep her busy most of the time however she likes reading and going to the local theatre and cinema.

Jeremy Tutt (Financial Controller) said ”I am really pleased Lisa has joined PPS. Following Peter’s retirement, it was important to recruit someone who would fit in with the team and continue to support PPS East Limited as we continue to grow and develop.”

PPS East Limited (formerly TFA Box Company) was established in Grimsby over 25 years ago to service the local fishing industry. BRC accreditation in Storage and Distribution means the company also attracts major blue chip clients.

They operate out of their wash facility in Omega Business Park. This allows local fish and food production businesses to hire plastic returnable containers and pallets and also have them hygienically washed. Due to increased interest from fish merchants, suppliers and processors looking to purchase various reusable containers, PPS East Limited has recently started selling directly to customers plastic boxes and trays, pans, defrosting crates and pallets.

Returnable Transit Packaging for Christmas Food Deliveries

Christmas in Retail and Food Processing Industries

Plans for Christmas in certain retail sectors started in January and now there's Only 4 months to go!

I can’t believe that we have reached August bank holiday weekend already!  Summer has been and gone (was it ever here???) and before we know it the shops will be full of Christmas merchandise!

I know, I said the dreaded ‘C’ word, in August. Personally I love Christmas and I bought my first Christmas presents in January. I love all the build-up, the excitement on children’s faces and most of all the food!

Sometimes as consumers we don’t realise all the time and work that goes into making sure that all the edible Christmas delights arrive on our supermarket shelves ready for the festive period.  Since working closely with the food processing industry supplying them with various types of returnable transit packaging including plastic trays, crates and pallets alongside providing hygienic equipment washing I have begun to realise the lengthy process Christmas entails. They need to make sure that we have enough mince pies, turkey and of course brussel sprouts to fill our plates and at PPS we have to provide the food processers with enough plastic pallets, trays and crates to store their important produce in.

Christmas preparation in the food production industry starts as early as January but at PPS we notice a big increase in our tray rental in the summer months.  As soon as the sun comes out all the seasonal tray hire enquiries come in.  Luckily at PPS we have over 10 years of experience in the supply of returnable transit packaging and we have become accustomed to industry trends making us well prepared for the seasonal spikes.  We always ensure that we have a large rental pool of equipment ready for our customers including plastic pallets, trays, crates and returnable fish boxes.

I know some of you will be reading this and think I’ve gone mad talking about Christmas but everyone in food processing and retail will have started thinking about Christmas months ago to make sure we have everything we could possible want during the Christmas period.

Contact us for more information about seasonal rental.



PPS Midlands Limited and PPS East Limited are returnable transit packaging specialists. Contact us with regards to reusable equipment services including pallet pooling, crate rental, tray rental, tray washing, plastic pallet washing, reusable fish boxes, pallet boxes and returnable transit equipment repairs

PPS East Celebrates its 25th Birthday.

How the times have changed from when Great Grimsby was a major fishing port, and the filleting of the fish was done outside on the North Wall in all the elements. The packaging of the fish has also moved-on as well…

We’ve seen fish boxes evolve from when merchants packed their catch into wooden boxes, and secured the lids with nails, and then it moved onto single-use expanded polystyrene boxes for when the chilled supply chain was unpredictable, and now a shift back to returnable plastic boxes has started to happen apace.
PPS East now in its 25th year, was originally named TFA Box Company. It has grown from the early days of cleaning fish boxes outside by hand, to the present day of supplying returnable packaging to all food manufacturing businesses from a BRC accredited wash facility.

In the beginning TFA Box Company was just an idea of Icelandic fish selling agency, Fylkir. At the time it was known that fish box hire prices had doubled in price, so the directors of Fylkir put their ‘cod-heads’ together and decided to buy their own box supply to use for Icelandic fish landings on the Grimsby auction. This idea was initially only for Icelandic fish, but as time went by, more and more Non-Icelandic fish selling agents began to use their box services.

Now having their ‘fish-fingers’ in a new type of pie, the co-owners Peter Davey and Ron Woods began to realise this could be a good business partnership, and by 1998 Ron had sold his shares to Quayside Distribution a local fish haulier. They then moved the wash process onto the Grimsby fish auction, where new machinery was bought for the cleaning of the boxes. TFA was then turning over £200,000 per annum, and ‘haddock’ bright future.

In 2002, Quayside’s then co-owner, Steve Moore, sold his shares within the transport company, and part of that deal was the acquisition of the 50% shareholding of TFA Box Company. At this time there were four other fish box rental businesses in the Humber region, but TFA progressed quickly eventually gaining 98% of the available market, and reached a turnover of £1.5 million.

Having taken over most of the fish box rental work in the area, TFA out-grew their facility and moved premises to the Old Pontoon – where trawlers then landed their catch. This is where the business stayed until 2009.

Being solely a fish box business, and having already taken the majority of the work on the Humber banks, TFA needed to look at other opportunities. This is when alternative investment was offered by PPS, a company who already had a wash and rental business in the Midlands of the UK, but predominately supplied crates for meat and other food types.

The two companies had many things in common, but both brought areas of expertise, therefore a natural progression occurred in combining the two. Peter Davey and Steve Moore are still actively involved with the business today and together with PPS’s new dynamic team instigated the opening of a new wash site away from the dock area, which would continue to service the fish industry and Grimsby fish market with all types of plastic containers, but to also reach out to other food manufacturing businesses in Lincolnshire to supply and clean returnable transit equipment helping to reduce packaging waste.

The past 25 years have seen an industry change and evolve, and PPS is making sure that they are always well ‘plaiced’ to move with the times!