A leading global provider of reusable packaging solutions for fresh foods

IFCO is a leading global provider of Reusable Packaging Containers (“RPC”) pooling solutions, driving the circular economy in the fresh grocery supply chain for over 30 years.

The IFCO History

IFCO was founded in 1992, is headquartered in Pullach (Germany) and was acquired by Triton and ADIA in 2019. IFCO’s RPC pooling business model is based on the circular economy concept and provides reusable, sustainable, cost-efficient packaging solutions for retailers and producers. Providing reusable packaging-as-a-service, IFCO manages the entire process from delivery to collection, sortation, inspection, and sanitization, and thereby provides customers with a sustainable alternative to single-use packaging.

Under Triton’s ownership, IFCO has successfully achieved a strategic and operational transformation and delivered strong growth. It reestablished its clear market leadership position by fundamentally transforming the North American RPC market and extended European leadership with significant customer wins and consistent renewals. IFCO further expanded market leadership in South America and Asia through contract wins & renewals and established a successful M&A track record with 4 bolt-on acquisitions (e.g. Sanko RPC business in Japan, PlasticPack and BEPCO in the Baltics).

Today, IFCO is the #1 market leader in all served regions and caters to 550+ retailers, 18,000+ growers in 50+ countries with over 2 billion trips annually. It operates an extensive network with 380m+ RPCs in circulation and more than 110 services centres globally. It is entrenched in supply chains with difficult-to-replicate scale, has diversified customer relationships underpinned by long-term contracts and high retention, resulting in strong revenue visibility. Looking forward, the large, resilient, and growing addressable fresh food market offers substantial white space for further attractive growth.

Sustainability

Independent third-party studies demonstrate that switching from single-use packaging to IFCO RPCs reduces 60% of GHG emissions, 64% of energy usage, 86% of waste and 96% of food waste, while saving up to €680m in costs from fresh food supply chains each year. Thus, IFCO’s RPC solution not only delivers tangible environmental benefits for its clients to advance in their own ESG programs, but also enhances efficiencies across the value chain and shares the resulting long-term value with all stakeholders.