Customer Testimonials for PDQ Plastics Inc.

Monday, September 18, 2000

Testimonial for P.D.Q. Plastic Skids

The TORONTO STAR has been a customer of P.D.Q. Plastics for over 22 years now and has been more than pleased with the product quality and service we have received. Since the move to our new Press Centre in Vaughan in 1992, our use of plastic pallets is an integral part of everyday production. Our inventory of almost 3,800 skids are used daily in a seven day per week, 24 hour a day operation. They are moved in-house by electric tow motors and by Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV's),, as well as being process by 24 Alvey Palletizers.

It has been important for us that any pallet used must meet the following criteria:

• Must be a four-way entry pallet.
• Must be extremely durable, able to handle a great deal of abuse.
• Must be reasonably light-weight and easy to handle.
• Must be nestable which allows for efficient storage when not in use.

The use of PDQ Plastics Inc. skids presents a number of advantages over alternatives available:

• They are environmentally friendly (as opposed to wood skids).
• They are user friendly, easy to handle no protruding or rough edges.
• Expedient payback - skids are used a dozen times a week.

In our experience here at the Toronto Star, we have used wood pallets and composite pallets, however PDQ Plastics Inc. skids are the only pallets that we rely on to satisfy our daily production requirements.

Keith Scanes
Assistant Superintendent
Mailing Room
TORONTO STAR

Customer Testimonials: US Rubber Reclaiming...

US Rubber Reclaiming, of Vicksburg, Mississippi, had customers that wanted their deliveries made on plastic pallets, but Don LaGrone, company controller, couldn't find a plastic pallet that would the job. "Our company reclaims rubber from used inner tubes and ships the resulting slabs of reclaimed rubber to our customers all over North America," said Mr. LaGrone. "The slabs are cross-stacked onto pallets and then shipped out. We need to use plastic pallets to avoid one possible source of contamination. The first plastic pallets that we tried worked, but they broke up in a relatively short time. Another one we tried collapsed the first time we loaded it. Then we sampled a heavy duty pallet from PDQ Plastics Inc. The pallet both took the load, and held up better than any other plastic pallet we'd seen. Since then, we have been integrating the PDQ Plastics Inc. "SUPER 42 x 42" into our closed loop pallet return system. The PDQ Plastics Inc. pallet has proved to be both operationally effective, and cost effective by stopping the cycle of constant pallet replacement."

Customer Testimonials: Premium Standard Farms...

Rough And Ready

Premium Standard Farms switches to a tougher brand of pallets to endure the abuse of the processing floor.

All pallets employed at Premium Standard Foods are happy and healthy, despite a constant bout with labor-related stress.

The brawny pallets work long, tedious hours in the rough-and-tough environment at Premium Standard Foods, a Milan, Mo.-based pork processor. They get knocked around and beat up everyday. But the pallets report to work every morning, ready for action.

The mighty pallets in this case are manufactured by PDQ Plastics, Inc., a Bayonne, N.J.-based company. These pallets have an attitude. They would be willing to go head to head with the defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers to prove their durability.

And to think it was less than a year ago that the pallets at Premium Standard Foods were having such a difficult time of it. These weren't pallets from PDQ Plastics, Inc. though.

They were different plastic pallets and they couldn't handle the constant abuse on the processing floor. After two months on the job, their legs had weakened. They had had enough.

Premium Standard Foods also had had enough. So, last November, the company made the switch to the tougher bunch, the pallets from PDQ Plastics, Inc.

"We have not torn up one of them yet," says Rick Fox, vice president of operation support services for Premium Standard Foods. "We have gone through most of the [pallet] brands out here. But [the PDQ Plastics, Inc.] pallets are head-and-shoulders above the rest.

Premium Standard Foods uses about 400 of PDQ Plastics, Inc. Super D pallets in its production area. The 40 inch by 48 inch Super D is molded of solid, high-density, polyethylene material. It is non-expanded, non-foamed and non-cellular for durability and longevity.

"At some point they are going to wear out, but the pallets are outlasting everything else that we've tried at this point," Fox says.

The 50-pound pallets can withstand a temperature range of minus 40 degrees F to 200 degrees F. The pallets are equipped with four-way entry and have nine legs, and are USDA-approved, with a life expectancy of three to 10 years. PDQ Plastics, Inc. offers a three-year guarantee.

"You can bang these pallets around," says Barry S. Nathans, president of PDQ Plastics, Inc.

The tough factor includes a static or stored load of up to 25,000 pounds a pallet. Dynamic load or driving load is equal to lift-truck capacity.

PDQ Plastics, Inc. began developing plastic pallets for General Motors in 1969. The company also sells plenty of pallets to newspaper publishers, such as the New York Times.

But Nathans says he has received numerous calls from food processors, inquiring about the pallets.

More food companies want to utilize plastic pallets because of export regulations handed down by the European Union. The EU prohibits the use of wooden pallets in production areas to offset cross-contamination.

Premium Standard Foods is approved to export product to the EU. It's another reason why Fox is smiling about his deal with PDQ Plastics, Inc.

"Most people picture pallets as stacks of wood often seen behind a factory," Nathans says, "They don't realize the cost savings that can be gained from using something that can last a long time."

PDQ Plastics, Inc. pallets are tough, but they are a pushover when it comes to cleaning. At Premium Standard Foods, old pallets had to be scrubbed by hand to eliminate bacteria caught in crevices, Fox says. The PDQ Plastics, Inc. pallets are simply foamed and hosed down.

But above all, it's the durability factor that PDQ Plastics, Inc. offers with its pallets that will attract processors such as Premium Standard Foods.

Fox talks of the processing floor at Premium Standard Foods, which has an abrasive finish. Old pallets would get torn to pieces and worn away when dragged across that floor, Fox says.

But the pallets from PDQ Plastics, Inc. have not succumbed to that abrasive floor. It's going to take more than that to weaken their legs.

It's all in a day's work.

Reprinted with permission from Meat Marketing & Technology

Customer Testimonials: Kansas City Star...

"Over a 20 year period the KANSAS CITY STAR has purchased approximately 2,000 40 x 48 "Super D" Plastic Pallets, and I cannot remember even one of those pallets being rendered unusable. To my knowledge, every single one of those 2,000 pallets is still in use."

Paul Weiss
Mailroom Manager
KANSAS CITY STAR

Customer Testimonials: Grand Rapids Press...

"We are still using every pallet we ever bought from you, and that goes back to 1978."

Ted Hall, Jr.
Mailroom Manager
GRAND RAPIDS PRESS

Customer Testimonials: Commercial News...

"If you need to let anyone know how good these pallets are, just have them call me."

Wanda Hamm
COMMERCIAL NEWS