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| The Home Depot to Begin Using Environmentally Sound Alternative to Conventional Wood Pallets |
CHEP Pallet Management System Provides Higher Quality Pallets at Lower Cost
ATLANTA, April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The Home Depot (NYSE: HD), the world's
largest home improvement retailer, today announced that it is asking its
vendors to begin shipping products to all of the company's 964 stores and
47 distribution centers using an environmentally sound alternative to
conventional wood pallets. The system, operated by CHEP USA, an Orlando-based
New York General Partnership, provides a nationwide "pallet pool" in which
pallets are delivered to Home Depot vendors, are loaded and shipped to Home
Depot retail locations or distribution centers and then are returned to CHEP
service centers for inspection and repair. Because CHEP pallets are fully
recycled, wood waste is drastically reduced.
"Wood use efficiency is a major part of Home Depot's environmental
initiatives," said Wayne Gibson, senior vice president - imports and
logistics. "Particularly as we double in size over the next three years, to
1,900 stores, and have more than 60 million pallets in use, the CHEP system
ensures that the wood used in our pallets will be employed to its fullest
potential."
Among all industries, millions of conventional "one-way" single-use wood
pallets are currently discarded as waste after delivery, which makes wood
pallets the seventh largest source of municipal solid waste in the United
States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Home Depot noted
that, while the industry has made some progress in recycling conventional wood
pallets, it cannot match the level of recycling offered by the CHEP pallet
pooling system.
"The typical Home Depot store uses more than 30,000 pallets in a year,"
Gibson said. "On average, nearly 10,000 of those pallets currently end up in
landfills after only one use, mainly because they are of such low quality."
Gibson said the CHEP system should enable Home Depot to avoid discarding
almost 10 million pallets annually at its current size, and more than
18 million per year by the end of 2002, substantially decreasing pressure on
forest resources worldwide.
In addition, Gibson said, CHEP pallets will cost less per shipment than
conventional wood pallets. Their higher quality will help minimize shipping
damage, and their standard 48-by-40-inch size will make it easier for vendors
to handle and load trailers.
"They're cheaper to use, they're consistently higher in quality than
conventional pallets, and they offer huge environmental advantages,
particularly with regard to waste reduction" he said.
Home Depot has successfully used the CHEP system in Canada, where the
company operates 54 stores, since 1993.
"We proved the viability of the CHEP system within our operations in
Canada," Gibson said. "We've essentially eliminated pallet waste and have
realized substantial amounts in cost savings, and this has benefited our
vendors as much as it has Home Depot."
Several Home Depot suppliers are currently using the CHEP system, and the
company is actively working to move other vendors to CHEP.
"The Home Depot and its largest suppliers will need to collaborate on the
implementation of the CHEP program to deliver the highest return to the entire
supply chain," said Bob Moore, CEO, CHEP. "Because the environmental and
productivity benefits are so great, we expect most of the leading home and
hardware vendors will be on the program by the end of the year and the
majority of Home Depot's volume will be shipped on CHEP pallets by the end of
2001."
Founded in 1978, Atlanta-based Home Depot currently operates 962 stores in
45 states, five Canadian provinces, Puerto Rico and Chile. The company was
recently named in America's Top 10 Most Admired Companies by Fortune magazine,
which has also ranked it as America's Most Admired Specialty Retailer for
seven consecutive years. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange
and is included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's
500 Index.
CHEP is a worldwide organization that operates in more than 30 countries
on six continents and controls more than 122 million pallets and 15 million
containers. The company supports the consumer goods, food, home improvement,
housewares and automotive industries with an equipment pooling network that
reduces supply chain costs. For more information on CHEP, please visit the
company's website at http://www.CHEP.com .
Note: Photos of the CHEP pallet system and Home Depot stores are
available on Home Depot's Media Resources website at
mediaresources.homedepot.com (an extranet site, do not use "http://" or
"www").
SOURCE The Home Depot
back to topRelated links:
CONTACT:
John Simley of The Home Depot (U.S.),
770-384-2792, or David Day of The Home Depot (Canada),
416-412-6825, or Ron Margulis of RAM Communications,
908-232-3230, for The Home Depot
