SBS Worldwide Launches 'Revolutionary' Freight Solution at London Book Fair

Purchasing costs have risen to reflect the increase in timber rates, especially with the extra burden of fumigation and quality control. To put the environmental impact into numbers, 200 million trees, or 50,000 per day, are felled to produce pallets each year.

Slipsheets also weigh 20 times less than wooden pallets, so shipping weight is reduced. Another factor to consider is waste. Often warehouses and distribution centers pay to have unsuitable or damaged pallets hauled away for destruction—a sad example of waste that impacts the environment and could be prevented by changing to slipsheets.

Walker told publishers at the fair's Supply Chain seminar: "With slipsheets, you have a 100% recyclable and hygienic method of shipping goods, with a highly efficient loading and unloading process that achieves time and motion stats comparable to the palletised product. The space and weight saving can result in a significant financial boost, so not only is this option good for your company's bottom line, it will also be a major contributor to your green policy."

Partnership
SBS Worldwide is launching the slipsheet and push/pull forklift attachment in partnership with Cascade, the largest manufacturers of push/pull equipment, in Europe and the USA with certified Green certification.

Walker says: "We already have publishers trialling the systems and this shows that a 15% cost saving is quite realistic - not to mention the benefits to the environment. We also have a Slipsheet Calculator which we can use to demonstrate the exact savings and return on investment."

About SBS
Founded in 1983, SBS is a £50m business committed to the book trade. It sponsors the Chairman's Breakfast at the London Book Fair, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award in International Publishing, awarded annually at the Fair.

The introduction of slipsheets by the company is another example of its innovative approach to the supply chain. Its Electronic Distribution Centre (eDC), launched last year, has met with wide acclaim and has already led to the company being shortlisted for the Supply Chain Innovation in the Publishing Supply Chain Award at the Bookseller Industry Awards next month.