Page 38 - Food&Drink magazine April-May 2023

DAIRY BUSINESS
Paletting partnership
Bubs Australia’s US success in 2022 has been well documented. Behind the scenes a partnership was building between Bubs and plastic pallet specialist Ozkor. Ozkor national marketing manager Alan Morgan writes.
WHEN reflecting on Australian food industry success stories, one company that stands out and is eminently worthy of its achievements is Bubs, one of Australia’s leading infant formula brands manufactured and exported around the world from Melbourne.
Founded in 2005 by CEO Kristy Carr, the brand filled a gap in the market for formulas based on goat’s milk, catering for infants who were more sensitive to traditional formulas based on cow’s milk.
Since those early days, the sky has been the limit for the brand, with extraordinary demand around the world for the brand, culminating in exporting more than 1.25 million cans of formula to the US, as part of Operation Fly Formula. At the end of last year, the company was awarded 2022 Australian Exporter of the Year.
“Our success to date has been largely the result of all the hard work the Bubs family have contributed over the years.
“With their help our growth strategy, both in the US and Asia, is on track to meet our expectations in the coming years,” said Carr.
When shipping food products over vast distances, product protection and hygiene has to be considered in order to ensure the quality of the canned baby
formulas reach their ultimate destination free from damage and contamination.
With this in mind, Bub’s logistics team chose to use a plastic export pallet instead of wooden alternatives; manufactured in Australia and supplied by Ozkor Pty Ltd, a specialist in the provision of plastic pallets that counts many of Australia’s leading companies as customers.
Wooden pallets are less hygienic and can arrive covered with a mould growth. They are
also susceptible to harbouring contaminants due to the porous nature of the materials and must be heat treated for pest control purposes which is unacceptable for products manufactured in a high care manufacturing environment such as that operated by Bub’s.
Ozkor’s Plastic export pallets are manufactured from 100 per cent recycled polypropylene and comply with ISPM-15 regulations. This means they don’t need any decontamination procedures before being dispatched overseas.
At a time when international supply chains have experienced disruptions and wooden pallet shortages and price increases, Bub’s general manager, Richard Paine, explained that in order to cope with the high demand for Bub’s infant formula, multiple logical challenges needed to be managed with a high level of priority.
“In order to mitigate any risks to our production it is vital that our suppliers are able to meet our exacting standards of scheduling and product quality
ABOVE: Bub’s founder and CEO Kristy Carr and company chair Dennis Lim, with the first load of formula bound for the US.
BELOW: Bub’s was launched by Kristy Carr in 2005.
in order that we can maintain our customers expectations not only in Australia but also our increasing overseas demand.
“To this end, Ozkor has demonstrated a high degree of compliance and support for Bub’s since they initially became our preferred pallet supplier in recent years”, said Paine.
Ozkor’s decision to manufacture its export pallets in Australia has been instrumental in the company being able to pass on considerable savings to its customers and shortening lead times from 8-10 weeks, for full container loads, to just days for full semi-trailer loads of pallets.
The result is a more reliable and economical supply model that has facilitated a streamlined channel to meet end users’ schedules. ✷ ✷
38 | Food&Drink business | April/May 2023 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au