32 WESTERN PALLET
Adapting Business Strategy for the Next Pallet Economy
Markets remain uncertain, labor remains tight, and customer expectations for data and sustainability are rising. Yet amid the noise, companies that adapt their core strategy, whether through sharper focus, greater vertical control, or smarter technology, are finding their footing for the next chapter of pallet manufacturing and recycling.
For many WPA members, success now depends less on doing everything and more on doing the right things well. While traditional growth models once emphasized scale, today’s pallet economy rewards precision, responsiveness, and credibility.
Revisiting the Classic Strategies
In cyclical industries like pallets and packaging, the same strategies resurface in new forms. Longstanding strategies such as vertical and horizontal integration, cost leadership, differentiation, and focus all remain valid but must be recalibrated for today’s realities.
Vertical integration, such as in a pallet company buying a sawmill, has long been a hedge against lumber volatility and can still pay dividends. But integration today extends beyond the sawmill to data systems, customer portals, and digital traceability. By aligning production, materials, and information under one roof, companies reduce friction and strengthen customer confidence.
Oak Creek Wood Products provides one of the most striking recent examples. As reported by Pallet Enterprise in 2025, the Wisconsin-based company transformed itself from a modest recycler into a vertically integrated producer of new and custom pallets, engineered wood packaging, and EPAL-certified block pallets. By acquiring a sawmill, expanding into custom packaging, and adding pallet tracking technology, Oak Creek reduced dependency on external suppliers and built multiple revenue streams.
Vertical integration gave the company control over material flow and product diversity during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath when market shortages and freight costs were constraining others. It also set the stage for growth financing without surrendering independence, a path more companies are likely to explore as private investment in the sector evolves.
By contrast, Hinton Lumber, based in La Porte, Texas, demonstrates the opposite but equally valid strategy: strategic focus. Hinton’s leadership deliberately avoided vertical integration, choosing instead to concentrate exclusively on high-speed pallet assembly using pre-cut lumber. The facility, among the most automated in North America, runs multiple CAPE lines designed for precision and consistency.
This specialization, as covered in Pallet Enterprise in 2023, allowed the company to compete on efficiency and quality rather than scale or diversification. Hinton’s model mirrors the highly automated European approach, producing pallets to tight tolerances for rental and petrochemical customers. Such specialist companies believe that if they define a clear operating niche and eliminate distractions, they can outperform larger, more diversified rivals.
Differentiation in a Crowded Field
If Oak Creek and Hinton represent opposite ends of the integration spectrum, Girard Wood Products in Puyallup, Washington, demonstrates how differentiation and service excellence remain timeless. For more than six decades, Girard has built its brand on reliability, speed, and customer partnership. As Pallet Enterprise reported in early 2025, the company’s philosophy of “delivering a solution, not just a pallet” has turned customer service into a strategic advantage.
With four locations, Girard combines vertical integration in lumber processing with a strong logistics network and responsive service. A company-owned trucking fleet enables same-day or next-day delivery for key clients, a capability that competitors relying on contract carriers struggle to match. In a market where downtime can cost customers a lot, fast and reliable delivery is more than convenience; it’s a source of differentiation.
Girard’s recent investments in optimized cutting systems also highlight a key shift across the industry: machinery choices are increasingly driven not just by speed but by consistency and quality control. Automated systems, such as the company’s new Ultimizers, improve lumber recovery and product uniformity while reducing labor dependency.
The same logic applies to Oregon-based Turner Lumber, another WPA member. When insurance constraints forced Turner to relocate its pallet operation, the company used the challenge as an opportunity to modernize and expand. By adding new Woodpecker nailing lines and streamlining material flow from its lumber division, Turner turned disruption into an advantage. The expansion allowed Turner to increase production, reduce waste, and build capacity for custom pallets, all while maintaining its established cut-stock business.
In the current pallet economy, agility can be as critical as scale.
Competing on Credibility
Beyond machinery and market focus, another shift is underway: the rise of credibility as a competitive asset. As pallet customers begin to demand verified sustainability data, the ability to produce accurate, defensible numbers is becoming a differentiator in its own right.
In 2025, Pallet Enterprise both reported on how companies like Oxnard Pallet in California are taking a measured approach. Only a small portion of Oxnard’s customers currently require sustainability metrics, yet the company is preparing carefully by investing in solar energy and ERP-based freight optimization before venturing into full-scale reporting. Its approach reflects a broader sentiment among mid-sized recyclers: sustainability should be data-driven, not cosmetic.
Larger national operators, including 48forty Solutions and Ongweoweh Corp., have already moved ahead with annual sustainability and social responsibility reports. While not practical for many operations, they can make sense for the largest players. These documents provide transparency for major retail and manufacturing customers while consolidating data on emissions, energy use, and circularity. But even here, the lesson is about proportionality. As industry leaders noted in recent coverage, credibility doesn’t mean chasing every metric; it means reporting on what matters most. As Jess Bonsall of 48forty told Pallet Enterprise, put sustainability requests from customers through a cost-benefit analysis to determine if the ask is worth the effort.
While sustainability may not yet drive every buying decision, it increasingly shapes who gets a seat at the table. Pallet suppliers that can demonstrate responsible practices, whether through FSC certification, efficient freight, or waste reduction, are quietly building reputational capital that will matter when the next procurement review arrives.
The Next Cycle: Automation, Discipline, and Partnerships
Looking forward, WPA members are confronting a changing competitive landscape shaped by three forces: automation, data discipline, and capital alignment.
Automation continues to advance beyond nailing lines to encompass material handling, scanning, and inspection. Companies like Hinton Lumber exemplify full-line robotics, but even smaller producers are adopting semi-automated equipment to bridge labor gaps. As automation spreads, however, success will depend less on owning machines than on using them efficiently. Companies that train workers, maintain quality standards, and align production data with ERP systems will gain more from automation than those who see it purely as a mechanical upgrade.
Meanwhile, data discipline is emerging as a quiet differentiator. Across the industry, more companies are using ERP platforms such as PalMate, Pallet Connect, and Pallet Track to connect production, inventory, and sales. The goal isn’t to replace human judgment but to improve decision-making. As one Pallet Enterprise report noted, leading companies are using ERP analytics to track cost per pallet, measure downtime, and model profitability by product type. These capabilities help prevent underpricing and reveal where efficiency improvements deliver the biggest payoffs.
Finally, capital alignment, choosing the right financial structure for the right stage of growth, is becoming increasingly strategic. Oak Creek’s move toward minority investment partnerships highlights one path; others, like Turner Lumber or Girard, rely on reinvestment and debt discipline. The right strategy depends on the company’s ambitions. Those aiming to scale rapidly may find external investment attractive, while firms prioritizing stability and control may favor organic growth and targeted automation.
Partnerships, too, are gaining importance. Whether through alliances for EPAL certification, material sourcing, or technology integration, collaboration now extends far beyond the supply yard. Guerrero at Oak Creek, for example, forged partnerships with technology providers to incorporate pallet tracking and sensor data for select customers. For others, like Hinton or Turner, collaboration takes the form of close relationships with machinery suppliers or lumber brokers that help them stay flexible as markets shift.
Adapting Without Overreaching
If there is a unifying thread among today’s strategic shifts, it is discipline. After years of volatility, many pallet executives are rebalancing ambition with caution. They are investing selectively, focusing on what strengthens their core, and building resilience rather than chasing speculative growth.
The most effective strategies are not entirely new but are refinements of old ones. Vertical integration is evolving into supply chain control. Cost leadership now means precision efficiency rather than price cutting. Differentiation has shifted from slogans to verifiable performance. And focus, once a defensive posture, has become a growth strategy for companies that define their niche and own it.
At the same time, the pallet sector is not immune to the global push for accountability and transparency. Whether it is carbon reporting, labor safety, or data integrity, tomorrow’s competitive advantage will increasingly depend on measurable credibility. The best companies are approaching these demands with realism, not rhetoric.
The next pallet economy will not reward those who simply grow larger so much as reward those who grow smarter. WPA members are already showing what that looks like: focused, data-informed, and ready for change.