Lightning Technologies

Food safety along with sustainability continues to be a primary source of concern for the food and beverage companies especially during its transportation across various locations and storage in warehouses. In an industry that demands transparency and cleanliness, consumable products’ recalls are widely dreaded by companies as it can cost them not only financially but also in terms of reputation. The antagonist that holds responsibility for this scenario is the poorly regarded wooden shipping pallets—one of the omnipresent tools in commerce. These wooden pallets have a habit of wreaking havoc within the supply chain as the bacteria present in the wood can develop cracks while in case of fires, they do not stand a chance of survival.

Having been in the business for a while now and knowing the industry well, Jeffrey Owen, the founder, president, and CEO of Lightning Technologies saw the perfect chance to develop a novel pallet. Without a moment’s hesitation, he seized the opportunity leading to the creation of a hybrid product which combined the best of both wood and plastic—the Lightning Technologies pallet. “Our pallet is built using highly engineered wood, fully encapsulated with a polyurethane, polyurea coating, sterilized, and sanitized with an anti-microbial additive,” says Owen. The resultant is a lightweight, fire-resistant, sustainable, hygienic, and skid-free pallet available in varied shapes and sizes that cater to customer-specific demands.

What sets Lightning Technologies apart from their competitors in the industry is the fact that their pallet is trackable and traceable during its journey along the supply chain. The pallet monitors location, temperature, humidity, impact of motion, and uses a dashboard to display the readings in real time. Customers can heave a sigh of relief as they have access to the critical data regarding their supplies to ensure that they have the highest quality of products on the shelf.

Exceeding the ISO standards of pallet safety, the company’s technological breakthrough solves additional sanitary concerns for food storage and is NSF certified, making the pallet acceptable to food contact.

Another crucial aspect of Lightning’s value proposition is that all of their pooling pallets contain active, sensing, lightning intelligent modules, which can be installed on smaller components such as the products which have the possibility to move within the pallet. But Owen feels that Lightning Technologies is a game changer because of the pallet’s outstanding features and capabilities that cater to every application fulfilling the customer’s potential wish list. “We address our pallet as a logistics platform because of the innovative and technological advancements that we provide,” the CEO adds.

The effectiveness of Lightning Technologies’ solution can be well described with a client success story. Owen narrates the case of an enterprise in the dairy production industry that needed a sterilized pallet, which could monitor the environment of their product while they were shipped from the distribution centers to the stores. They approached Lightning Technologies seeking a special sized 52 by 40 inch pallet with their set of specifications. Not only did Lightning Technologies successfully supply them with their desired pallet model, but they also provided the client with dashboards that could effectively track the critical factors that they were concerned about.

Achievements to Lightning Technologies’ credit include signing an exclusive agreement with the premier anti-microbial producer in the world: Microban for the application of anti-microbial additives to their pallet. This addition to the pallet will ensure the prevention of bacterial growth such as salmonella and E.coli giving Lightning Technologies an edge over their competition. The company is also building a state-of-the-art facility in Sweden to expand their reach besides signing global partnerships for joint ventures in Ireland to support their European market.