EPAL Board Meeting and General Assembly on 28/29 June 2024 in Rome

EPAL Board Meeting and General Assembly on 28/29 June 2024 in Rome

 

On 29 June 2024, EPAL's annual General Assembly took place in Rome. The day before, 28 June 2024, the EPAL Board had already made important decisions and planned EPAL's activities in the second half of 2024. The focus of both meetings was on the development of EPAL against the background of the current difficult market situation, the further development of quality and quality assurance as well as the challenges associated with European legislation.

The economic environment, which has been difficult since the second half of 2022, continues to have a negative impact on the production figures for EPAL pallets. The EPAL Board assumes that there will be no significant economic change in the second half of the year. Nevertheless, EPAL is sticking to its goal of stabilising production volumes at this level after the decline in production figures in 2023.

Jarek Maciążek, President of EPAL:

“The pallet business is directly dependent on economic developments in important sectors such as mechanical engineering, the automotive industry, the chemical and building materials industries, as well as national and international trade. All of these sectors have performed negatively over the past 18 months. At the same time, after the record year 2022 with a production of approx. 109 million EPAL Euro pallets, the warehouses are still well filled, so that demand for new EPAL Euro pallets remains subdued. However, we are already seeing signs of a trend reversal in individual countries such as Poland, Spain and China, so that the EPAL Board is sticking to its goal of stopping the negative trend and stabilising production figures for 2024. This has already been achieved in the field of repair of EPAL pallets.”

Another important topic of the board meeting was the quality assurance of EPAL pallets. With around 25,000 unannounced inspections per year at the manufacturers and repairers of EPAL pallets, the quality assurance of EPAL pallets is unique in the world. Users of EPAL pallets can therefore rely on internationally uniform quality and dimensions – an important prerequisite for the cross-sectoral use of EPAL pallets in all areas of industry and trade, and in particular in automated conveyor systems and high-bay warehouses. In addition to the constant inspections, the evaluation of the inspections and the handling of negative results is also important. The EPAL Board has therefore adopted new regulations for dealing with negative audit results.

Bernd Dörre, CEO of EPAL:

“EPAL's day-to-day business includes the continuous evaluation of quality assurance measures. With an average of 100 inspections per working day, this is a challenging task, but one that is of central importance for the satisfaction of users of EPAL pallets. If errors are detected by EPAL's independent inspection companies, the causes must be quickly identified and eliminated together with the EPAL licensees concerned. Fortunately, only rarely are such significant deficiencies found that the inspection can be assessed as negative. The new regulations adopted by EPAL's Board on 28 June 2024 will make EPAL's quality assurance even more effective.”

In addition to checking the production of new EPAL pallets and repairing used EPAL pallets, there is also constant quality assurance of the production of EPAL wood-chip blocks. EPAL pallets are manufactured with solid wood blocks or with wood-chip blocks. Wood-chip blocks have many advantages such as exact dimensions and the highest quality, as well as sustainability through the use of sawmill waste and recycled material. In order to ensure this in the future, EPAL is revising the regulations for the quality and quality assurance of EPAL wood-chip blocks. The EPAL Board discussed the results of the successful conference of block manufacturers and testing institutes on 16 April 2024 and discussed the next steps in the completion of EPAL's new Technical Regulations for EPAL blocks.

Alexandre Coppée, Member of the EPAL Board and manufacturer of EPAL wood-chip blocks:

“The quality of the wood-chip blocks is of central importance for the quality of EPAL pallets. That is why it is so important to the EPAL Board and also to me personally as a representative of a manufacturer of EPAL wood-chip blocks and EPAL pallets to update the provisions for quality and quality assurance. EPAL wood-chip blocks are increasingly made from recycled material and thus support the sustainability requirements of EPAL pallets. At the same time, however, this is associated with the need to adapt the quality assurance measures in order to ensure internationally uniform and high quality.”

Important topics continue to be the European Packaging and Packaging waste Regulation (PPWR), which was adopted by the European Parliament on 24 April 2024, and the European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), the application of which is to start at the end of the year. Both regulations are directly applicable in all EU member states, but are associated with numerous problems in implementation. The EPAL Board supports the objectives of the PPWR and the EUDR, but calls for rapid adjustments to enable problem-free application. In particular, 6 months before the planned launch, many problems with the EUDR are still unresolved and important parts have not been implemented by the European Commission.

Dirk Hoferer, President of EPAL:

"It is unacceptable that only 6 months before the start of the application of the EUDR, the digital platform for generating due diligence declarations and reference numbers is not available. Significant problems have arisen during the testing phase of the platform, the EU Information System. Likewise, the risk assessment of the exporting countries has not yet been completed and published. The complexity of the requirements is a major problem for many companies. At the same time, if there is no opportunity to test the platform, companies cannot adequately prepare. As an association of more than 1,600 manufacturers and repairers of EPAL pallets, EPAL is therefore calling for a postponement of the application of the EUDR."

 

With the meeting in Rome, the EPAL Board and representatives from more than 20 European countries accepted an invitation from EPAL Italia and the Italian association Conlegno.

The EPAL General Assembly 2025 will take place on 27 June 2025 in Budapest. The next EPAL Board meeting will take place on 25 September 2024 in Brussels, combined with a strategy workshop.