November 2025
return trips. Hauling other products such as packaging supplies, lumber, or recycled materials. Such activity helps offset fleet costs and improves driver utilization. It’s not a core business line but can contribute incremental profit with minimal change to operations.
Complementary Product Distribution: Some pallet suppliers, distribute plastic or corrugated pallets, intermediate bulk containers, or packaging supplies. Acting as a one-stop “load-handling solutions” pro- vider can increase market share, strength relationships and keeps competitors out of key accounts.
Brokering: Some regional pallet companies act as brokers for customers that have a national footprint, helping set them up with needed pallets in other locations.
Emerging and Niche Opportunities
Storage and Yard Rental: Many pallet yards have underutilized outdoor space that can generate passive income. Fencing off sections for trailer parking, seasonal lumber storage, or overflow inventory provides predictable monthly cash flow. With trucking and warehouse space in short supply in some markets, even modest sites can find takers
Real Estate and Facility Leasing: Similar to the above, subleasing unused buildings or yard sections to compatible businesses, such as trucking dispatch offices or equipment repair shops, creates a steady revenue floor and helps share site overhead.
Franchising: Selling franchises is another potential way to generate revenue. Although we are not aware of franchises in the wood pallet sector, there is an example in the custom crating space. For example, Craters and Freighters operates a franchisee model, wih 65 locations in 2024. The initial franchise fee is $30,000 to $40,000, with a suggested full investment required of $173,350 - $287,500. There is a 5% royalty on sales and a 1% advertising royalty. The term of the deal is 15 years.
Data Capture and Analytics
As customers demand transparency and sustainability metrics, pallet providers are beginning to monetize information. Tracking repair rates, return cycles, or CO₂ savings from reuse can be packaged into paid reporting or built into higher-tier service contracts. What once was a record-keeping chore is becoming a product in itself.
Branding and Advertising
A smaller but creative opportunity is offering local advertising on trailer side panels or yard fencing. For businesses with visible fleets or highway frontage, ad rentals provide low-effort supplemental income.
Managing Volatility Through Diversification
Diversification is less about chasing every new idea than about managing exposure. When recycled cores are plentiful and lumber is expensive, recycling margins rise. When core supply tightens, new-pallet production fills the void. Grinding operations turn waste into value, while logistics and data services produce revenue from capabilities already in place.
Vertical integration with a sawmill is perhaps the clearest form of risk control. Producing one’s own lumber stabilizes cost and guarantees supply, while selling surplus grade material into other markets provides additional revenue. It also strengthens negotiating power with suppliers and customers alike.
Similarly, blending manufacturing and services — pallets plus retrieval, data, or packaging — helps insulate a company from commodity cycles. Service contracts bring steadier cash flow, while product diversification ensures that when one line slows, another is ready to carry the load.
Looking Ahead
The revenue picture for wood pallet and packaging companies is evolving. Traditional manufacturing and recycling will always form the base, but the growth lies in layered services and smarter use of assets. Companies that treat every part of their operation — yard, fleet, equipment, and data — as a potential contributor to income will be better positioned to ride out economic swings.
In a business where margins can swing with lumber futures or labor shortages, a diversified portfolio of revenue sources isn’t just a strategy — it’s protection. From the sawmill to the customer’s loading dock, every board, bolt, and byte of information can play a role in building a stronger, more resilient pallet enterprise.
Diversifying to include new and used pallets, as well as vertical integration to add milling capacity are two tried and true approaches to increasing revenue