This little piggy saves you money
August 1st 2005 UK logistics firms spend £400m on stretchwrap and strapping every year. According to Loadhog, that’s money down the drain and into landfill. But there is another way... The UK logistics industry is throwing away £400m annually on disposable plastic film and strapping, according to Sheffield-based Loadhog. But with its eponymous re-usable lid, Loadhog seeks to reduce the 222,000 tonnes of plastic and 30 million man hours wasted every year in the UK by what it calls ‘the old way’ of doing things.
What is Loadhog? In essence, the Loadhog concept is simple: a re-usable lid (in UK, Euro and half Euro sizes) that is strapped to the top of the load, keeping it firmly in place, removing the need for wrap and strapping. The savings in stretchwrap and palletwrapping machines would probably justify investment for many firms, but, because of its stability, Loadhog also allows pallets to be double-stacked, meaning up to twice as much product can be shifted in a single trip. It's also faster to apply to pallets than stretchwrap – retractable straps allow an operator to secure a load in seconds – and according to both Loadhog and its customers, reduces product damage Who’s using the lids? Big-name companies are using Loadhogs.
Recent contract wins include CERT Logistics, TNT Container Logistics, and automotive components supplier, Collins & Aikman. The latter, which utilises around 1000 lids at its Redditch and Sunderland sites, estimates annual savings of £250,000 a year – at the pilot sites alone – by replacing traditional packaging methods of cardboard, shrinkwrap and wooden pallets.
Why has nobody done this before? Who knows? What is known is that Loadhog executive chairman and serial entrepreneur, Hugh Facey, came up with the idea at an annual Gripple (the wire joining business which spawned Loadhog) ‘Oktoberfest.’ Rather than a Germaninspired beer session, this is a meeting between Gripple personnel and directors to focus on strategic direction. At the ’99 Oktoberfest, one of the non-executive directors, who was also the UK chairman of Rank Xerox, mentioned a problem with moving goods and shrinkwrap. Facey suggested a lid with straps – and the Loadhog concept was born.
After working with Sheffield Hallam, Cardiff and Loughborough Universities on R&D (during which time the product underwent around 12 design iterations), the project secured SMART funding for trials and design improvements. But it wasn't until spring 2003 that the Gripple team felt it had a saleable product.
Following another round of funding, securing some £5m, the work began on a new-build factory and the machines needed to manufacture the lids were commissioned. In January 2004 Loadhog was spun out of Gripple, as the two companies were now focusing on totally different areas, and in June 2004 Loadhog made its first product sales.
Where to now? Just over a year after selling its first batch of lids, the company is making strides in the returnable transit packaging market.
Shortlisted for the ‘Big Tick’ Award (but narrowly beaten in the final), the company’s Hogwork’s plant (which walks the walk environmentally with polymersaving MuCell technology in the production process, water from the River Don for machine cooling, rainwater harvesting and solar heating) was officially opened by the Duke of York in July. It now employs over 100 staff, each of which is a shareholder, and continues to grow.
Because it deals with clients in many sectors, each of whom have numerous supply chain partners that are then drawn to Loadhog products, the company is expanding exponentially (aiming to have 100,00 RFID enabled lids on the market within three years). It has patents registered and pending for a number of new products. For example, after taking a lid in to a potential customer in the bottling industry, Loadhog discovered it wasn’t the right solution for that client. So it invested £200,000 in tooling and has developed, from scratch in just four months, a slip sheet and top frame to reduce breakages which is now being trialled by a major bottler and brewery.
It’s a reflection of the ‘can do’ ethos that created the company in the first place, and should grant Loadhog the recognition it deserves. Whether its lids will replace stretchwrap altogether remains to be seen.
But when it comes to saving time and substantial amounts of money, even companies with a conservative environmental attitude should be interested. More articles from Loadhog Ltd: | 
