Who buys from a pallet yard, and what they actually need

Food and beverage

The binding constraint is hygiene screening rather than structure. Grade A dry stock satisfies most secondary packaging uses; direct food contact needs plastic or new heat-treated wood, and we will say so. Buyback volumes here are high and steady, which makes route pairing unusually effective.

Breweries and distilleries

A four-month phase shift between supply and demand: cores come back in January, pallets are needed in May. The answer is a forecast in winter, not a phone call in spring. See the long version.

3PL and warehousing

The pallets belong to the client, the dock belongs to the 3PL and nobody owns the reconciliation. We run split-billing programmes where supply invoices to the client and handling to the 3PL, with one shared report both parties can see.

Manufacturing and export

Almost always a crating conversation rather than a pallet one. Custom skids, load spreaders, lifting points and ISPM 15. The rule that kills the most shipments: repairing a treated crate with untreated wood invalidates the whole unit.

Cannabis and hemp

Low-density biomass, strict traceability and tightening cleaning regimes. Wood under the liner, plastic where product touches. We do not sell reclaimed lumber into product contact here.

Across every sector, four things determine whether a pallet programme works, and none of them is the pallet.

1. Whether the footprint suits the load. Overhang and wasted deck area cause more damage and cost than grade ever will.
2. Whether the grade suits the destination. Racking, automation and customer-facing delivery need Grade A. Everything else does not.
3. Whether supply and generation are connected. Most sites both receive and generate pallets and treat them as two unrelated problems.
4. Whether anybody forecasts. Four columns, updated monthly, is worth about 14% on the unit price.

If you want the arithmetic behind that last one, it is in the journal.

Grocery and food distribution

The largest single sector in our customer base and the one that sets the rhythm of the yard. Grocery DCs are net generators of good 48x40 cores, which is why the Commerce City and Aurora corridors dominate our intake. The binding constraint is hygiene screening rather than structure: Grade A dry stock satisfies most secondary packaging requirements, and anything with open food contact needs plastic or new heat-treated wood.

Seasonal shape is real but mild — a Q4 peak of roughly 15% above the annual average. The operational risk is the reverse: a busy quarter generates cores faster than the dock can accumulate them, which is exactly when a drop trailer earns its keep.

Breweries, distilleries and taprooms

Colorado's signature sector and our most awkward supply problem. The 36" keg square is a national rounding error and a Front Range constant, and supply and demand are four months out of phase: cores return in January, pallets are needed in May. We hold roughly 1,400 units through the winter specifically for this, allocated to customers who forecast.

Chamfered deck edges are worth specifying — keg rims chew lead boards and a chamfer roughly halves the damage rate for a few cents a unit.

3PL and contract warehousing

Structurally the most complicated relationship in the industry: the pallets belong to the client, the dock belongs to the 3PL, and the reconciliation belongs to nobody. We run split-billing programmes and, more usefully, provide line-level reporting both parties can see so the recharge conversation is based on data rather than assertion.

Manufacturing, machining and export

Almost always a crating conversation rather than a pallet one. Load spreaders, lifting points, centre-of-gravity marking and ISPM 15. The rule that kills the most shipments is that repairing a treated crate with untreated wood invalidates the whole unit — we send treated spare timber with every export build for exactly this reason.

Cannabis, hemp and controlled cultivation

Low-density biomass, strict traceability, tightening cleaning regimes. Wood under a liner, plastic where product touches. We do not sell reclaimed lumber into product contact in this sector, and we turn the request down several times a year.

Building products and construction supply

Heavy point loads, odd footprints, seasonal demand tracking the construction calendar, and a lot of one-way dunnage. The most common avoidable problem is point loading — a bundle of fasteners or a stack of plate concentrating force between deck boards. A plywood cap solves it for a couple of dollars.