Case study of foldable large containers in the pooling industry
From Single-Use to Circular: How the FalConic® SPC Is Redefining Light-Goods Transport Packaging
Company Overview
CHEP is a global leader in supply chain solutions, managing approximately 347 million pallets and containers across a network of more than 750 service centres in over 60 countries. Through its share, repair, and reuse model, CHEP helps producers, manufacturers, retailers, and logistics partners reduce supply chain costs and minimise environmental impact. Its Pallecon division specialises in large container pooling solutions, serving industries including consumer staples, packaging, co-packing, e-commerce, and general manufacturing. CHEP is part of the Brambles Group and employs approximately 11,000 people worldwide.
The Challenge
Across industries handling light and medium-weight dry goods — packaging, co-packing, e-commerce, and general manufacturing — single-use transport packaging remains deeply entrenched. Cardboard boxes, stretch-wrapped trays, and one-way plastic containers are cheap to procure, easy to source, and familiar to operations teams. But the cost model only holds if you ignore what comes after: waste disposal, repeated procurement, carbon from manufacturing and landfill, and the growing compliance burden of the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).
For CHEP’s Pallecon division, the challenge was specific: the existing reusable container market offered heavy-duty solutions for demanding industrial applications, but nothing that had been genuinely designed — from the ground up — for the lighter-weight segment. Existing options were too heavy, too difficult to fold and handle ergonomically, reliant on hook-and-loop fasteners or stretch wrap for closure and not built around the circular material principles that modern supply chains and incoming regulations require.
The opportunity was clear: design a reusable sleeve pack container specifically for light and medium-weight dry goods that could genuinely compete with — and replace — single-use alternatives on every dimension that matters to operators: weight, ergonomics, speed of use, durability, traceability, and circular credentials.
The Solution
Developed through an ambitious co-development programme between CHEP and Cabka — shaped by direct customer insight — the FalConic® Sleeve Pack Container (SPC) launched at FachPack 2024, one of Europe’s leading packaging trade fairs. It is designed specifically to replace single-use transport packaging for light and medium-weight dry goods across packaging, co-packing, and e-commerce applications.
Every design decision was driven by two priorities: operational performance and circularity from the outset. Key features include:
- 80%+ post-consumer recycled material — the container is manufactured primarily from post-consumer recycled plastic, significantly reducing the carbon footprint of production compared to virgin material alternatives, and is fully recyclable at end of life
- Innovative sleeve, lid, and drop locking mechanisms — purpose-designed closures eliminate the need for hook-and-loop fasteners and stretch wrap entirely, reducing consumable waste, cutting preparation time on the packing line, and making opening and resealing faster and more ergonomic
- Foldable design for return logistics efficiency — empty containers fold down compactly, reducing return transport volume and cost, consistent with CHEP’s wider pooling model
- Modular architecture — a modular sleeve design allows the container to be adapted for different product types and configurations, increasing versatility across a customer’s product range without requiring separate container specifications
- IoT-ready with integrated traceability — built-in IoT capabilities support real-time asset tracking, supply chain visibility, and customer insights, enhancing CHEP’s pooling asset management and supporting PPWR traceability requirements
- Ergonomic handling throughout — the container’s weight, grip, and opening design have been optimised for the physical realities of high-throughput packing and distribution environments, reducing manual strain and handling time
- PPWR-ready by design — reusable, recyclable, and traceable, the FalConic SPC is engineered to meet the requirements of the EU’s incoming packaging regulation without customers needing to change their solution again as the regulatory landscape evolves
The FalConic® SPC joins the CHEP ZirConic® Container — launched in 2023 for heavy-duty applications and winner of the Red Dot Award that year — as part of an expanding portfolio of next-generation reusable transport packaging. Together, the two products cover the full spectrum from light dry goods to demanding industrial loads.
The Results
Its most significant validated outcome to date is the external recognition it has earned — with direct design and sustainability implications:
- Second consecutive Red Dot win for CHEP and Cabka — following the ZirConic® Container’s award in 2024, back-to-back recognition confirms that the co-development model between CHEP and Cabka is producing consistently world-class outcomes across different product categories
- Red Dot Award 2025 — Best Design, Industrial Packaging (Transportation) — awarded by one of the world’s most respected design juries, recognising the FalConic SPC’s combination of functional performance, ergonomic design, and operational innovation
- Red Dot Award 2025 — Most Sustainable Design, Industrial Design — recognition in this dedicated sustainability meta-category validates the FalConic SPC’s circular credentials as genuinely substantive rather than aspirational: the jury specifically cited its end-to-end ecological design “from production to recycling”
- 75% volume reduction in reverse logistics — when folded/returned, the sleeve-pack container reduces empty-return transport volume by up to 75%, lowering backhaul cost and emissions while remaining compatible with Euro dimensions
- Operational design benefits for light-goods transport — high-impact resistance through a bumper-effect foot design; a locking system securing the lid and front panel; improved load accessibility via a sleeve opening; easy cleaning and maintenance; integrated tamper-evidence; and faster assembly/disassembly with a retainer–sleeve attachment system
- Stretch wrap and fastener waste eliminated at the source — the locking mechanism design removes the need for consumable closure materials on every cycle, delivering repeatable waste and cost reductions across the full pooled life of each container
- Regulatory-ready ahead of PPWR enforcement — customers adopting the FalConic SPC gain a container that already meets anticipated PPWR compliance requirements, removing future transition risk from their packaging strategy
Testimonials
Daniel López Urán, Global Head of Disruptive Innovation, Brambles
“Winning a Red Dot Award is already a major distinction — but winning it two years in a row, including the new meta-category for sustainable industrial packaging, is a powerful validation of our innovation journey. The FalConic container is the result of an ambitious collaboration programme with our customers and our development partner Cabka, blending insight-driven proprietary design features with sustainability and circularity from design as the main drivers.”
Ignacio Castellanos, VP Pooling and System Integrations, Cabka
“These awards reflect our shared ambition with CHEP to raise the bar for sustainable transport packaging. The FalConic Sleeve Pack Container exemplifies what can be achieved when material science, design excellence, and circularity come together. We are proud of our continued collaboration and the impact it’s creating across industries.”
Red Dot Award Jury, 2025
“The FalConic Sleeve containers are ecologically well thought out from production to recycling and are a convincing part of a regenerative supply chain.”
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Key Takeaways
- Design and sustainability are not competing priorities: Winning both the Best Design and Most Sustainable Design categories in the same year demonstrates that the FalConic SPC did not trade one off against the other. Circularity was built into the design brief from day one — not added afterwards.
- Eliminating consumables compounds savings over time: Removing stretch wrap and hook-and-loop fasteners from every container cycle is not a headline number — but multiplied across a pooled fleet and thousands of packing operations, it becomes a meaningful and recurring cost and waste reduction.
- Customer insight drives better product development: The FalConic SPC was shaped by a structured co-development programme with CHEP’s customers, not built in isolation. That process produced the specific design features — the locking mechanisms, the modular sleeve, the ergonomics — that real operations needed, rather than features that looked good on paper.
- Consecutive innovation validates a repeatable model: Back-to-back Red Dot Awards for two different products — the ZirConic® in 2024 and the FalConic SPC in 2025 — confirms that the CHEP–Cabka collaboration is a sustainable innovation engine, not a one-off. The model of combining Cabka’s materials science with CHEP’s operational insight and customer network is producing industry-recognised results at scale.
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