Case study of plastic pallets in the pooling industry
The FMCG Pallet Built for What Comes Next
Company Overview
Tosca is a global leader in reusable plastic packaging and performance pooling solutions, with end-to-end capabilities that serve growers, suppliers, and retailers across the food and beverage sector. Rather than simply selling pallets, Tosca manages them as pooled assets throughout the supply chain — handling deployment, recovery, washing, repair, and redistribution as an ongoing service. Its customers include some of the world’s largest FMCG companies and grocery retailers.
The Challenge
European FMCG supply chains are under simultaneous pressure from three converging forces — and the pallet sitting beneath every load has become a flashpoint for all three.
The first is regulatory. The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks are reshaping what “acceptable” packaging looks like, demanding that logistics assets be reusable, recyclable, and traceable by design. Wooden pallets — the dominant standard in European FMCG — fall short on all three counts: they require ISPM-15 heat treatment or fumigation for international transport, they are poorly suited to circular reuse models, and their inconsistent dimensions and condition make traceability difficult to maintain.
The second is operational. Warehouses and distribution centres are rapidly automating, and automated systems require pallets with consistent, precise dimensions and stable structural performance across every cycle. A wooden pallet that has warped, splintered, or lost a board is not just a safety risk — it is a system failure that can halt an automated line.