A Welsh company fined €20,000 for producing poor quality pallets claims it has been harshly treated by the European Pallet Association (EPAL).
Fisher Pallets and Containers was named by EPAL as being in serious breach of its strict quality code by producing pallets out of specification, which in some cases reduced the safe working load of the pallet.
The action, EPAL’s heaviest sanction to date, resulted from a complaint by a German end user who experienced problems of product recall, repacking and expense due to the poor quality of the pallets.
Subsequent investigations in Germany and in the UK by BM TRADA found some pallets to be out of specification, with no quality staples attached.
The Cardiff company’s sales director John Butler admitted a problem did occur due to “human error” but said the large fine was imposed on Fisher with little chance to defend itself.
He said a new pallet manufacturing line had been introduced last year and numerous test pallets were produced during the equipment’s set-up. A number of these were sent out by mistake to a customer, though he questioned how any of these could have ended up in Germany.
Mr Butler said: “We’ve had a licence for a number of years now. It happened through human error and we have been extremely harshly treated.”
In addition to the fine, TRADA has been instructed to carry out monthly random inspections at the company’s site.
