Alfa-Beta Vassilopoulos, a food retailer based in Athens, Greece, and part of the Brussels, Belgium-based Delhaize Group, has experienced a 16 percent year-on-year increase in the number of CHEP pallets it handles — and a resulting boost to its supply chain efficiencies — as the number of its suppliers joining the pallet network continues to grow.

The retailer is currently handling more than 200,000 CHEP pallets each year, and uses the pooled pallets to ship goods to its distribution centers and stores across Greece.

“Using a pallet pooling service creates supply chain efficiencies and allows our suppliers to concentrate on manufacturing their products, rather than having to be concerned with pallet availability,” said AB Vassilopoulos warehouse manager Alexandros Anagnostopoulos. “The high quality of CHEP pallets helps protect products in transit, compared with white wood pallets, which are generally in poor condition from being used numerous times in different industries without being inspected or repaired.”

CHEP and AB Vassilopoulos have worked closely over several months to develop a plan to optimize the retailer’s supply chain operations, which involved the conversion of suppliers to use CHEP.

AB Vassilopoulos has also introduced CHEP display pallets in its stores to increase product visibility and help reduce stock-out occurrences. The CHEP half and quarter pallets used for this purpose were developed to be easy to handle and boost logistics efficiencies.

Delhaize Group sales network includes over 2,600 stores employing a total of 141,000 associates.