Pallet manufacturing company Range International who salvages mixed waste plastic and turns it into cost competitive recyclable shipping pallets, has utilised 888,000 kilos of plastic from landfill in its short first year as an ASX company.
Range International Managing Director Lars Amstrup said the company had experienced positive and encouraging engagement with large scale multinational customers which had been strengthened by the ability to demonstrate the path to large scale operations.
“2016 was a momentous year for Range International. Our successful IPO provided the means for the expansion of our business and we are seeing very positive results,” Mr Amstrup said.
Listed in Sydney, with its operational headquarters in Indonesia, Range International currently has two production lines operating in its new factory in East Java, with an additional line scheduled to be installed every 6 weeks until December 2017.
“Production in our new East Java facility started in January, only 6 months after our ASX listing. We are on track with the installation of 8 new ThermoFusionTM production lines, having 10 lines in that factory in 2017 – achieving this in a very short span of time is a significant achievement,” he said.
According to Mr Amstrup, with the global pallet market estimated to exceed $50 billion in annual sales in 2017 the opportunity to influence change was enormous.
“By the end of 2017, we will have the annual capacity to turn many millions of kilos of waste plastic that would otherwise have ended up in landfill, or escaped into the environment and oceans, into environmentally friendly, cost competitive shipping pallets. In turn reducing the demand for sawn timber from trees, to be converted into wood pallets,” Mr Amstrup said.
“For every one of our Re>PalTM pallets, we utilise a minimum of 14 kilos of mixed plastic waste like old plastic bags, sheeting, jugs, crates and piping. We are investing our IPO funds to expand production to 16 production lines over the next few years so we have the opportunity to make a significant impact on the global plastic crisis. Our proprietary ThermoFusionTMtechnology enables us to use mixed waste plastic that cannot be re-processed by traditional plastic recycling approaches. We believe this is a real game changer,” he said.
Range International has also begun exploring ways to purchase waste plastic from Australian and international companies, after a number of potential industrial customers expressed interest in the possibility of delivering their waste plastics to Range International for conversion to pallets.
“In February 2017, we completed the goal of expanding our sales force to a total of 8 countries in South East Asia, China and United Arab Emirates. Actively increasing our presence to more than 20 sales staff across 8 countries including Indonesia and Australia. This is now a significant focus of the company, and we are very excited about the products and capabilities we have created,” Mr Amstrup said.
“The listing also enabled us to develop new product designs to extend the Re>PalTM plastic pallet range. Our new Nestable and Rackable pallet designs address additional supply chain handling needs giving our customers more of what they look for in Re>PalTM pallets: Low cost, environmentally friendly alternatives to wood pallets used in one-way export trade and domestic supply chains. These new designs will launch in May,” he said.