Beecraft supplies plastic pallets across Leeds and West Yorkshire from its Coventry depot, delivered rather than collected. The range covers hygienic food-grade, heavy-duty, lightweight and export pallets, plus Euro containers, crates and pallet boxes for food manufacturing. Stock lines reach West Yorkshire sites next working day.
Between the M1 at Leeds and the Pennine climb above Huddersfield, the M62 runs through one of the densest bands of food manufacturing in the country. Bakery, confectionery, dairy, chilled ready meals, meat and prepared produce all sit within a few junctions of each other.
You can see the pattern on the ground: Cross Green and Stourton on the east side of Leeds, the distribution parks off junction 45, Wakefield and Normanton either side of the M62 at junction 31 with the rail terminal at Wakefield Europort, Castleford, and the ingredient and prepared-food manufacturers packed into Bradford. Add the Calder Valley chemical works and you have a corridor where most trailers are carrying either food or something that has to stay clean.
That leads to one blunt consequence. In a food factory a pallet is not simply handling equipment; it is a potential contamination route, and it will be inspected as one.
Splinters, nails and staples in open-product areas are the classic audit finding. A moulded pallet has no fasteners and does not splinter, so the hazard is designed out rather than managed.
Timber absorbs water and cannot be dried to a standard you can evidence. A closed-deck plastic pallet goes through the wash bay with the rest of the equipment and comes out on the cleaning schedule.
Colour moulded into the polymer keeps raw-side and ready-to-eat pallets apart on the floor without relying on paint or tape that wears off at the corners.
BRCGS is the audit scheme most UK food manufacturers are certified against, and it is what your retail customers ask about first. It does not ban wooden pallets, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. What it does is put the burden on you to identify contamination risks from packaging and handling equipment and show you control them.
That is where plastic usually wins on paperwork rather than on the pallet itself.
To be clear about what we are and are not claiming: we manufacture pallets designed for hygienic handling. We do not certify your site, and no pallet passes an audit on its own. Whether a product suits high-care use depends on your wash chemistry, your temperatures and your zone layout. Give us those and we will tell you what fits.
Most audit trouble comes from one pallet specification being used everywhere. Split it by zone instead: the yard does not need what high-care needs, and high-care must never get what the yard has.
| Zone | Pallet to specify | Cleaning it must take | What the auditor asks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yard, goods-in and raw materials | Heavy-duty rackable, open or closed deck | Jet wash and dry | How you stop yard pallets travelling further into the site |
| Low-risk and ambient production | Hygienic pallet, smooth deck, no cavities | Scheduled wash with detergent | Cleaning frequency, who signs it off and how it is verified |
| High-care and high-risk chilled areas | Closed-deck hygienic, colour-coded to the zone | Wash and sanitise between uses | How the zone is segregated and how you prove it on the floor |
| Wash bay and tunnel washer | Closed deck with drainage, no water traps | Hot water plus caustic, chlorinated or peracetic chemistry | Whether the equipment survives that regime without degrading |
| Dispatch and export | Lightweight nestable export pallet | Wipe down | Traceability — moulded-in ID rather than a stapled label |
West Yorkshire is a delivery area for us rather than a collection one. There is no Yorkshire depot; orders leave our Coventry depot on Torrington Avenue and run north on the M1 or the M42.
One local point worth checking before you brief a carrier. Leeds never launched the charging Clean Air Zone it once proposed — that scheme was dropped — but Bradford does operate a charging zone, and it applies to non-compliant vans, HGVs, buses, coaches and taxis rather than private cars. If your own vehicles run into Bradford, check them on the government vehicle checker first.
West Yorkshire is covered from Coventry alongside the Midlands and the North West. Sites across Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield can go on a single delivery.
No. Our depots are Coventry (CV4 9AP) and Wembley (HA9 0YJ), so West Yorkshire is a delivery area. For stock lines that makes little practical difference — next working day covers Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield — but it does mean we quote delivered rather than offering local collection.
It removes a hazard; it does not pass the audit for you. BRCGS asks you to identify and control contamination risk from packaging and handling equipment, and wood in open-product areas is an awkward risk to control. Excluding it makes that part of the audit simpler. We manufacture pallets designed for hygienic handling — we do not certify sites, and we will not claim a product is approved for a particular regulated use without knowing your process.
Yes. Colour is moulded into the polymer rather than painted on, so it does not wear off in a wash tunnel or scrub away at the corners. Sites commonly run one colour raw-side, another in high-care and a third for dispatch. Standard colours are quickest; bespoke colours form part of a custom run at 2–4 weeks.
Usually, but the answer depends on the regime rather than on the word plastic. Wash temperature, whether it is a tunnel washer or a hand lance, and the chemistry — caustic, chlorinated or peracetic — all affect which polymer is right. Send us those three details and we will tell you what suits, and say so if nothing in the range does.
Stock lines are typically available for next working day delivery to the UK mainland, dispatched from our Coventry (CV4 9AP) depot. Custom sizes and bespoke colours usually run to 2–4 weeks depending on specification. Give us the postcode and the quantity and we will confirm a date rather than a range.
No. We supply single pallets and full loads alike, and there is no maximum either. For smaller quantities it is worth asking about used and refurbished stock, which carries the same handling characteristics at lower cost.
Yes, from our Coventry (CV4 9AP) depot on most stock lines. Call ahead so the order is picked and waiting, and tell us your vehicle type so we can confirm access and loading.
Send us the zone, the wash regime and the quantity, and we will specify the right pallet and price it.