PPS, a specialist in returnable transit packaging, has topped off a standout 12 months by being crowned the winners of the Eco Pack Challenge at the Packaging Innovations Show 2016, landing the chance to partner with M&S. PPS, who increased sales by 47% in 2015, opened a brand new facility in Grimsby and acquired Lancashire-based Alison Handling, walked away with the top award for its development of Re-Fresh, following the Dragon’s Den style challenge.

Prologis, Inc, has signed a lease agreement with Linemart, a third-party logistics provider owned by Shenzhen Sailvan Network, a China-based e-commerce company, for 18,166 square metres of distribution space at Prologis Park Prague-Airport DC1. Founded in 2008, Shenzhen Sailvan Network now boasts more than 1,000 employees stationed at its HQ in Shenzhen, China and branches in Hamburg, Germany and Los Angeles, USA. Linemart, who operate the online clothing stores CNDirect and Dress Link, will use the space to serve their customers across Europe.

Prologis has completed a 48,000 m2 first phase, build-to-suit building, comprising eight units, for Action, a major Dutch non-food discount retailer. Located at Prologis Park Moissy 2 city of Moissy-Cramayel in Seine-et-Marne, the building will total in the long-term more than 71,000 square metres in 12 units. This site will become Action’s first French logistics platform and its first distribution centre outside the Netherlands. The second phase of the project will be the delivery of four additional units in the spring of 2017.

Baoli Material Handling Europe has unveiled its KBET series of three-wheel electric forklifts and extended its KBE series of four-wheel trucks. The three-wheeler models are available with 1.5 and 1.8 tons load capacity. Six models of the four-wheeler version offer load capacities between 1.5 to 3.5 tons. Both series are part of the Baoli KB-family, which started two years ago with diesel forklifts. The company says the increased consistency of the product range results in more efficient maintenance, since the different forklifts share numerous components.

Confirming the announcement made by Deutsche Messe at an Istanbul press conference on 18 March, the “Materials Handling EURASIA” trade fair has been renamed as “CeMAT EURASIA”. “Within the scope of our global brand management strategy, the time has now come to establish CeMAT EURASIA in Turkey,” stated Wolfgang Pech, Senior Vice President at Deutsche Messe. He continued: “We have been staging Materials Handling EURASIA as part of WIN EURASIA Automation for the past 15 years, and with great success. Over this period we have succeeded in turning Materials Handling EURASIA into the leading intralogistics trade fair for the entire region. We are now building on this success in the shape of CeMAT EURASIA.”

Commercial solar PV developer EvoEnergy has completed the fourth largest rooftop PV system in the UK for Lyreco, a global office and workplace solutions provider, with the installation of a 3.811 MWp solar array at its national distribution centre in Telford (Shropshire).

Alvey, specialists in industrial automation, will once again be demonstrating pallet conveyor solutions at INTRALOGISTICS EUROPE, which starts tomorrow at Paris Nord Villepinte and runs until Friday.

P3 Logistic Parks, a pan-European logistics real estate owner, developer and asset manager, has started 2016 with almost 220,000 m2 of warehouse space under construction in four countries across Europe, already almost doubling its 2015 development total of 113,000 m2.

There is a common theme to the logos of the following tech giants: Facebook, Twitter, Dell, Skype, IBM, LinkedIn, HP? That theme is the colour blue. Blue, you see, is trustworthy. It is loyal and strong and dependable. For technology companies, where users place their confidence and, quite often, their personal details, trust is (almost) everything.

Hoppecke Industrial Batteries - the leading specialist in energy storage systems and the largest battery manufacturer in European ownership - has welcomed the announcement that greater use of renewable energy has enabled the world's carbon dioxide emissions to level off for the second year running.