EPAL says its statement is in response to claims by the German producer of World Pallets – Falkenhahn that its product can be exchanged within the EPAL Euro pallet pool.
EPAL said EPAL pallet users who accepted World Pallets in exchange for Euro pallets (or vice-versa) ran the risk of a recipient rejecting World Pallets and the goods they carry.
EPAL says its reasons for not agreeing to exchange World Pallets include what it calls a lack of independent quality assurance for production or repair of the latter product, as well as no international recognition for the Falkenhahn product, compared to EPAL Euro pallets, which is the result of 19 national committees of EPAL.
Falkenhahn has made no bones that it intends to rival EPAL’s Euro product with a stated vision of creating a uniform pallet standard with the World Pallet manufactured worldwide by an international network of licensed factories. It plans to expand into the US market in early 2014.
The World Pallet is mainly used in central Europe, though some of them have made their way to the UK.
One UK pallet manufacturer said the dispute between EPAL and Falkenhahn was of interest to the UK pallet trade.
“We are interested in it, as it would be better if we had one viable open loop system,” he said. A rise of the World Pallet, he added, to rival the EPAL Euro pallet would effectively create two systems and cause fragmentation, leading to difficulties in the pallet supply business.
