Badandy wrote:So in 2 days, the 354 brought back 31 empties. ( 17 and 14) Business is great for such a small plant.
Not so small anymore. They did, after all, double their production capacity with the retrenchment to supplying medical gelatin (e.g. pill/gelcap lining). This right now is the aftereffects of 2+ years of them quietly beefing up the plant's capacity and staffing levels finally manifesting itself in carloads. Don't let size of the building or its rail sidings fool you: they completely revamped on the inside and took their capacity to a whole higher gear. This is the new normal for Rousselot now that Peabody's been made the center of their production universe and been re-geared to the hottest-growing segment in gelatin production. Unless the ban on Euro-import bones by boat gets lifted (very unlikely, as the Mad Cow containment risk is same as it ever was), this is how it's going to be out there for all foreseeable future.
Now...as with any customer, a completely different question as to whether PAR's up-to-task for handling a traffic spike with any degree of consistency. This isn't the first Fink Jr.-era windfall they've handled with butterfingers and failed to firewall against a preventable service meltdown. Can't grow unless one learns to scale. It's not like the still pretty meager combo of LOSA + BO-1 should in any way be putting D2 at risk of grinding to a halt by clogging every parking spot with canned empties. Yet here we are: the Winter Where Empties Don't Move™...this year's flavor of last year's Our Lube Oil Held Hostage™. Always the rinkiest-dinkiest of things that ends up tripping this outfit on their own shoelaces.
