Bright Star Ball

PPS were delighted to attend the 4^th annual Bright Star Ball on Saturday 7^th November in support of the Boparan Charitable Trust. The glamorous event was held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London featuring a star studded itinerary. 

Guests were treated to a champagne reception followed by a top class three course meal, all before a line-up of top performers including Jack Carroll, Sam Bailey and Tom Jones. Presenter duties for the evening were courtesy of Jack Whitehall, successful comedian and actor and last seen as the face of ITV’s rugby world cup adverts.

The charity has held a number of fund raising events throughout the year and the ball was no exception. Johnnie Gould, the UK’s number one auctioneer took responsibility for running a successful auction on the night. The lots included a South African Surprise, Golfers Delight, Meet and Greet with Amir Khan and an Equipment Pledge which gave the gift of mobility to those in need.

The team at PPS had a great evening and would like to wish everyone involved in next years charity challenges the best of luck, including our very own Operations Director taking on the Great Wall of China. 

Meet the Team- Lucy Allsebrook

Name: Lucy Allsebrook

When did you join PPS? May 2013

What is your role at PPS? Sales Administrator

What was your first ever job? First Saturday job was a waitress. First full time job was lettings assistant.

How do you take your tea? No sugar, milk, couple of squeezes of the tea bag.

What is your favourite food? Cake and curry- maybe there’s an experiment in that.

What are your hobbies? I love socialising with friends and family over some good food and wine, running, baking and long walks with the dog. 

How PPS became animated

PPS provide a vital service to the food industry through returnable packaging. As the largest event in the UK for processing and packaging in this sector was fast approaching we thought it only to appropriate that we started to think outside of the box in order to give everyone a full understanding of The Complete Package and the services we offer.

Visuals are key in drawing attention to a subject, and a video enables you to create an impact beyond an individual element. We wanted something that told story in a way a single image never could and demonstrate the products and services we have available.

We worked closely with Make It Media, a local video production company who specialise in corporate videos for marketing and internal communications. From the word go they understood exactly what we were wanting to create, and their expert advice and organisation soon pulled together all elements of the animation from images to voice over to sub titles. The PPS animation was born!

We now have complete flexibility to show the video at exhibitions and in house. One of the main advantages is the immediate distribution through social media to our target market via twitter, Facebook and Google+. It demonstrates to our audience the PPS service in one short piece.

PPS Exhibits at Foodex 2014!

PPS are pleased to be exhibiting again at Foodex 2014 between 24th and 26th March at the NEC in Birmingham on stand K349.

This will be the second time that PPS Midlands and East are there to promote the benefits of Returnable Transit Packaging through The Complete Package and additional services including rental, management, washing, purchasing and repairs.

PPS will aim to highlight the environmental and cost saving benefits of RTP.

With two state of the art wash facilities accredited to BRC standards in storage and distribution, PPS are already involved heavily in the food industry through manufacturers, suppliers and end users supporting sectors such as poultry, meat, fish and bakery.

Joanne Moss, Sales and Marketing Director has reported 'We exhibited at the last show in 2012 and found that it provided us with an excellent platform to display our RTP services to the food industry. We are looking forward to meeting new and current customers at this year show.'

For the love of cake

Here at PPS there is a definite love for cake, and even more so for our Sales Administrator Lucy Allsebrook.

At PPS Lucy is based within the sales team providing customers with a variety of returnable transit packaging options and assisting you with any queries regarding sales, crate rentals, washing and repairs, on hand to advise you the best equipment solutions.

Having made all the delicious cakes for our Macmillan coffee morning helping to raise over £150, Lucy also spends evenings and weekends preparing bespoke cupcakes, celebration cakes and wedding cakes.

As a registered home baker all cakes are designed to order for events such as birthdays, christenings and Christmas.

The PPS pool trays are an ideal alternative to cardboard for transporting the cakes.

Is Tray Washing a dirty subject?

Tray Washing at PPS

At PPS it’s not – it’s what we do every day!

We wash thousands of supermarket style bale arm trays 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

We do this because our customers don’t want the hassle of washing their own trays, that’s our problem and a problem solved for our customers, leaving them to get on with their core business.

We take tray washing seriously and we have exacting hygiene and quality systems.

These systems have enabled us to be certificated to BRC standard, which is recognised widely across the food supply chain.

So, if you have a tray washing problem don’t delay – contact PPS and let it be our problem.

Returnable Packaging Equipment Company PPS Supports London Olympics and Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

PPS has been very active in recent months putting together equipment rental and washing packages to support a number of contractors that are preparing the Olympic venues for the start of the Games at the end of July.

PPS has long been really active in recent months compiling equipment rental and equipment washing packages which includes plastic trays, plastic pallets, plastic crates and plastic pallet boxes to support a number of contractors that are preparing the Olympic venues for the start of the Games at the end of July.

We have supplied a considerable pool of our collapsible pallet boxes to a company engaged in the construction of temporary seating arenas at a number of sporting venues across the London area.

We have also supplied a pool of solid pallet boxes to be used for the storing of nautical equipment for the Sailing event to be held on the south coast. We are at present in discussions with a range of other suppliers to the Olympics as diverse as the supply of our plastic pallets for the transportation of hay at the equestrian events to the supply of our plastic food trays for a business involved in catering for the thousands of athletes that will be competing at the Games.

PPS also supplied a pool of collapsible pallet boxes for the transportation of equipment used for the erection of the stage and temporary arena for the concert in front of Buckingham Palace as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Once the Olympic games are finished we at PPS are expecting to be extremely busy at our wash plants when the trays, pallets, crates and pallet boxes are returned to our pool for washing at one of our wash plants to be made ready for the next rental assignment.

PPS prides itself on our adaptable and responsive approach to customers and we are very confident in our capability to provide all tray hire and pallet rental requirements together with tray washing or pallet washing services for both customers who own crates and pallets as well as our own crate and pallet pools. PPS offer the most comprehensive range of crates, trays, pallets and pallet boxes in the industry and we can supply both rental and equipment washing services for both small volumes on an ad hoc basis or high volume crates on a longer term basis.

With an rising trend towards environmentally friendly packaging returnable transit packaging (RTP) is replacing single trip packaging such as polystyrene and cardboard boxes for the transportation of food products.  PPS’s trays, pallets, crates and pallet boxes are manufactured from durable plastic and are especially designed for several trips over a protracted life which ensures that in the vast majority of applications we can offer a lower cost per trip in comparison with single trip packaging products. PPS manage pools of equipment and part of that equipment management is the hygienic washing of all used packaging.

PPS Midlands Limited and PPS East Limited are returnable transit packaging specialists. If you are interested in reducing your costs, waste and environmental footprint, then you should contact us with regards to reusable equipment and pallet pooling, plastic crates, plastic pallet boxes, container rental and supply, product repairs and equipment washing.

Tray Washing - BRC Accredited

The process of Tray Washing could be one of the most overlooked factor of many firms that carry food and other products into and around the supply chain. Traceability of all goods within the supply chain, even those that carry the produce has to be managed, as well as the associated tray washing and management of the Plastic Returnable Trays.  

PPS Midlands and PPS East deliver a ”BRC” accredited tray washing & crate washing service, tray hire & crate hire, bulk bin washing and hire, satisfying many customers’ requirements.  

Our site in Grimsby, has recently invested in a whole new tray washing line, to focus on the Non Fish food production around the South and North Humberside areas. The Crate washing line has been set up to accept the industry standard 600mm x 400mm tray/crate, with a high flow rate through the line we are able to deliver on short, long and adhoc tray washing requirements.  

BRC Accreditation -  What’s involved? 

• Washing and sterilisation of plastic crates, Trays, bins and pallets

• High Pressure and high temperature cleaning   

• Swab Testing   

• Logistics and transport of the washed equipment.   

• Wrapping of clean trays for transit   

Crate washing is at the very heart of PPS and our client base extends all across the UK, into a range of markets places, fresh produce, poultry, red meats, automotive components and fish.  

There are many environmental benefits to using returnable plastic containers;   

• Reduced waste  
• Sterilised containers reducing the risk of contamination  
• Reduced vehicle miles – Consolidation  
• End of life recycling factors   

Read this WRAP report - a more comprehensive breakdown of the benefits & environmental performance of single-trip and reusable packaging systems.  

PPS Midlands state of the art crate washing lines, are ready to wash variable sized units either rigid side nestable crates or bale arm trays, collapsible trays, tote boxes, plastic pallets, in addition we also offer pallet washing amenities with our automated pallet washing machine.  

Replacing cardboard within the supply chain is often simple to achieve and in most cases can bring about reductions in operational costs and time spent managing waste materials.   All of the equipment that is managed by PPS undergoes a series of inspections while in service, these include visual inspections for any damage and signs of deterioration within the tray or crate structure, removal of labels and other debris from the tray/crate prior to washing, visual inspection and periodic swab testing of the trays/crates once through the tray washing plant. The clean equipment is then stacked on to plastic or timber pallets and wrapped in shrink wrap to make certain that the trays remain clean for their next use. The stacking heights for the trays can be varied depending on the type and size of vehicle that is to collect the washed trays.

PPS Midlands Limited and PPS East Limited are returnable transit packaging specialists. If you are interested in reducing your costs, waste and environmental footprint, then you should contact us with regards to reusable equipment and pallet pooling, plastic crate, box, container rental and supply, product repairs and equipment washing.