SIP Limited, one of the leading suppliers of specialist oils and lubricants, has chosen Sulo Packaging to supply steel drums for the transportation of its products. SIP says it specified Sulo drums because they offer superior quality at the right price, combined with excellent delivery and overall service.
SIP supplies highly-refined speciality white oils to numerous sectors - including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, foods, textiles and general industry – in Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Africa. Its ecologically-friendly drilling base fluids, for oil and gas exploration, are supplied worldwide. SIP's main European storage and distribution centre is at its blending plant in Dagenham, with other terminals in Antwerp and Rotterdam, which all receive shipments from the company's refinery sources in North America and other locations worldwide.
Whilst a large proportion if SIP's products are delivered in bulk shipments, ISO tankers and intermediate bulk containers (IBCs) there is still strong demand for goods in drums, of which SIP is currently using more than 16,000 each year. SIP products are typically very high quality. For example, the SIPMED range of white oils is used in direct food contact applications, and since the oils are so refined they are produced to the highest European Pharmacopoeia specifications. They are virtually aromatic free, odourless and colourless and as a result they lack natural inhibitors to prevent rusting, which can be a problem with lower-quality drums.
"This means we must always have drums which are extremely robust and inherently clean," says SIPs Supply Operations Director Andrew Ottoway. "That's why we opted for the Sulo product. SIP targets superior logistics as a means of gaining and maintaining business, and this requires our suppliers to provide the right product, fit for the purpose, on-time delivery and at competitive prices."
Sulo is supplying SIP with its 216 litre mild steel tight head drums with 1mm-thick ends, 0.9mm side walls and TriSure closures. The drums, finished in blue-grey, carry up to 180kg of oil. "It is a very robust drum and well able to withstand the rough handling it's bound to get at some stage in its journey to the end user, wherever that is in the world," says Andrew Ottoway.
"We are of course aware how steel prices have more than doubled in the past few years, and significant savings could be made by specifying a different make of drum made of thinner steel. However, for the sake of protecting our valuable product, quality of service, security of packaging and presentation, we're simply not prepared to compromise below sensible limits. It is paramount that we must have products and packaging that guarantee total quality on arrival at our customers. And in this respect the overall service we get from Sulo is first-class, particularly with regard to its excellent, virtually 100 per cent trouble-free, record of on-time delivery of an excellent quality drum."
"Sulo drums offer best value - superior quality at the right price. They constitute a better economic unit."
contact:
Damian O'NeillSulo
MGB Limited 01494 511055
e-mail: d.oneill@sulo.co.uk