Selected section
Volumes, sectors and buying behaviour.
21 editor-reviewed updates · newest first
Responding to consumer price data, the BRC's lead economist states headline inflation rose to 2.9% while food inflation held at 1.3%, and calls for a business rates freeze in the Autumn Budget to ease retailer cost pressures.
The Department for Business and Trade refreshed its monthly building materials and components statistics collection, the official series that tracks UK price and availability indices for construction materials including sawn wood and wood-based panels. Pallet makers use the series as a published reference point for input-cost movement rather than a pallet-specific price.
Source GOV.UK (Department for Business and Trade)
Original date 16 Sept 2026
Read the original update ↗
The Bank of England's own agents' summary says output and business confidence improved in some sectors while consumer spending growth remained subdued, and reports 2026 pay settlements averaging around 3.6%.
The RHA's own statement says rising oil and food price inflation is squeezing already thin haulage margins, and calls on the Chancellor to scrap planned fuel duty rises and introduce an essential user rebate.
Brambles, the operator of CHEP, published its 2026 Sustainability Review covering the year to 30 June 2026, reporting a 36% cut in absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions and a 16% cut in Scope 3 against a 2020 baseline, and a land-regeneration partnership in South Africa tied to its timber needs. The company describes its share-and-reuse model as an asset pool of 352 million pallets, crates and containers served through more than 750 service centres. Figures and targets are Brambles' own.
The BRC's own letter to the Chancellor calls for a higher employer National Insurance threshold, stating retail employment costs have risen by GBP 6.5bn in two years while retail jobs fell by 115,000 over the same period.
The BRC's own shop price index states UK shop price inflation rose to 1.5% year on year in August 2026, with its chief executive attributing part of the increase to higher energy, input and commodity costs.
Responding to official retail figures, the BRC's lead economist says larger retailers saw only modest July sales growth as sustained warm weather pulled summer spending into earlier months, with footwear and household goods weak.
The ONS official statistical bulletin estimates UK retail sales volumes rose 1.1% in the three months to July 2026 compared with the previous three months, while July alone fell 0.5% after promotional demand shifted into June.
A UK plastic pallet supplier launched a lightweight euro-footprint pallet aimed at export loads where pallet weight eats into payload. The "lightest in the UK" claim and the weight figures are the company's own.
Rotom published guidance on matching pallets, boxes and crates to harvest-to-retail flows, where reusable carriers are pooled and repaired between seasons. Company guidance.
Department for Transport statistics report 1.56 billion tonnes lifted and 164 billion tonne-kilometres moved by GB-registered HGVs in the 12 months ending March 2026, alongside an HGV vacancy measure for the first quarter.
