LPR Partnership with Princes Foods

• LPR, partnered with Princes Foods, a food and soft drinks company located in Bradford in 2018.
• Princes Foods was seeing a reduction in revenue based on frequent downtime on their automated lines due to poor quality pallets.
• LPR partnered with the company and made a number of changes that involved additional quality checks and enhancement of rigidity and strength of pallets.
• This partnership has “increased the level of pallet quality of almost 99%.”  
• With this partnership, Princes food has increased its revenue while on the other hand, LPR found a customer for a longterm relationship.  

LPR Collaboration with Saint Louis Sucre

• Saint Louis Sucre collaborated with LPR to have the company install a tailor-made system at their packaging site in Roye.
• LPR took up this job and have already automated various processes such as sugar reception and packaging.  
• LPR reduced pallets’ rejection rate and round trips between sites by using a grader, which rejects the pallets before delivery if they do not meet the agreed quality requirements, and a dryer to ensure that they meet the hydrometric standards.
• Currently, LPR delivers an average of 14,500 pallets a month to Saint Louis Sucre Company in Roye.
• Although the exact date of this collaboration is not publicly available, the automation process can be assumed to have started in 2019.

LPR Partnership with James Jones & Sons

• LPR partnered with James Jones & Sons, one of the most innovative, effect, and largest timber processing group is Europe, in 2017.
• This partnership was aimed at restructuring LPR’s UK pallet inspection and repair operations. 
• James Jones & Sons was mandated with sorting and repairing pallets each week, which further improved the service offering for LPR.
• This joint investment saw a rise in the average “pallet sort and inspection rate from 41,000 in the last quarter of 2017, to 53,000 today (up 29%).”

New Service Centre in Contrexéville (France)

• LPR, in a move to expand its network, opened a service center in Contrexéville (France) in March 15, 2018. This service center was strategically set near Nestlé Waters, which is a long-standing LPR customer.
• The initial plan while setting the fully automated center was to handle 2.5 million pallets annually.  
• The service center is a fully fitted “pallet repair and sorting facility with an automated paint spraying booth.”

Joint Force Between LPR and Lahaye GL

• After opening a service center in Contrexéville (France), LPR partnered with Lahaye GL to provide primary services in Western France.
• The partnership would see an increase in LPR’s storage capacity, optimization of supply chain flows, and efficiency of its services in the region.
• LPR has been pursuing environmental commitments for several years, and having its services closer to the customers is a sure way of reducing its CO2 emissions owing to its reduced logistics circuit.
• The partnership between LPR and Lahaye GL took place in 2018 after the inauguration of the service center in Contrexéville, France.

MyLPR Retail

• LPR, with the aim of pursuing its digital transformation, launched an application dedicated to its end-users, the distributors, in 2019.
• This portal would enable dealers to automatically manage LPR’s collection with ease.
• MYLPR retail is an interactive and user-friendly portal that will enable distributors to create and track their collections, manage claims and visualize schedules.

Javier Dominguez Appointment

• On June 2019, Javier Dominguez was appointed by LPR as South Europe’s Regional Manager.
• According to the company’s announcement, Dominguez would drive the operation and commercial development excellence of the business in Portugal and Spain.  
• Mr. Dominguez, who has over 20 years of experience, would be based in Madrid and would “deliver a complete, optimum, pallet solution to clients.”

Strengths

• With a gold-advanced status, for over three consecutive years LPR has earned a prestigious status among its competitors, making it a more trusted brand among its existing clients and prospective clients.
• LPR is expanding exponentially, and this can be credited to its consistent quality management.  
•  LPR’s ISO 9001 certification renewal caters to five subsidiaries in France, Spain, UK, Portugal and Benelux. This ISO 9001 certification, therefore, supports LPR’s ability to expand its profit margins.
• With a CSR auditing platform approval, LPR has an advantage to retain and attract new clientele.
• LPR has an eco-responsible approach. As sustainable campaigns continue to intensify, LPR already has a regulatory framework that is in line with eco-friendly measures as a corporate social responsibility in the industry and community.
• With over 25 years of experience in the pallet market, LPR is well-established in the industry and its logistics follow an economic model that shields LPR from economic threats even during financial crisis.

Weaknesses

• LPR is only limited to its five subsidiaries; France, Spain, UK, Portugal and Benelux. Being limited to only the European market means that LPR is missing out on opportunities to expand into new territories such as the United States, which could expand LPR’s profit margins.
• The company is bound by the rigorous demands of ISO 9001 certification. Some of these demands include the ability to not only meet customers' demands, but also all the set regulatory requirements and applicable statutory. ISO9001 also requires adherence to improved application systems from its members and conformity assurance.

Opportunities

• By modernizing its logistics and palletized storage, LPR could expand its clientele base exponentially to newer territories, as well as retain its existing clientele base, by meeting the current market demands.
• As a market leader, LPR has an added advantage over its competition to expand its base and meet the needs and demands of an ever-growing client base in the industry, by penetrating new markets outside of the five subsidiaries and establish its presence in markets such as Asia and the U.S.
• As the world is embracing environmentally friendly ways of conservation, LPR could maximize on pallet recycling, and pallet sorting. Even though LPR is already eco-responsible, it could always upgrade its measures to include other environmentally conscious methods through repairs and reverse logistics.  

Threats

• Pan European Forest Certification (PEFC) can be limiting and can interrupt the certification of the entire supply. In recent times, PEFC has updated its demands that are expected to be enforced from February 2020 in a bid to promote responsible forestry.
• Some of these demands include prohibition of obtaining materials from unauthorized sources. This could lead to scarcity of materials and could threaten and strain LPR’s investment budget in 2020.
• Even though LPR has an eco-responsible approach, sustainability continues to become a demanding and controversial issue and companies in the wood business could be compromised or shut down in the near future. Organizations such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Pan European Forest Certification (PEFC) have joined efforts to enforce more stringent measures such as certifications, and political influences, which continue to limit raw material supply.
• As the pallet market continues to expand, competitors with better technology and modern logistic operations continue to emerge. These competitors could strain LPR’s supply and demand curve, leading to lesser profit margins and threaten LPR’s position as a market leader in pallet distribution.