Pallet maker Brambles Ltd
(ASX:BXB) has lost one of its biggest US customers, food giant Con Agra, to rival plastic pallet supplier IGPS.
It comes as another blow to Brambles, which recently had its claim that the fire retardant used in the plastic pallets caused cancer publicly rejected.
Con Agra has advised its 35,000 customers that it is switching to IGPS over the next three months after having used about 7 million of Brambles’ Chep pallets each year.
But a spokesman for Brambles has told the Australian newspaper that the company has been able to increase its market share since changing its strategy last year.
The spokesman said the loss of Con Agra was disappointing, but since October last year Brambles has won more annualised volume than it has lost.
The company says it is seeing strong growth in emerging markets in central and eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Brambles posted a profit of $557.8 million for the 2009 financial year.
