By Karla Calderon
Published in Comercio T21, September 2010
Mexico City Foreign Commerce periodical

“One of the advantages of using flexitanks is the lower transportation costs achieved by loading up to 50% more and therefore optimizing the space in the container,” said Alfonso Duncan, Sales – Latin America at Environmental Packaging Technologies (EPT).  EPT has been selling their BIG Red Flexitank product in Mexico for over a year now.

Mr. Duncan added that flexitank use is giving impetus to the Mexican market by helping to identify areas of opportunity to export national goods.  For example, EPT is in conversations with producers in the Michoacan region and has plans to transport avocado oil.  

The use of flexitanks can help reduce costs and increase profits.  On price concerns, Mr. Duncan commented that it is more competitive than loading cargo in 55 gallon drums and that in addition to being very strong, BIG Red Flexitanks comply with norms of the Food and Drug Administration and have Kosher certification.

“We give the customer the opportunity of making more money in their shipment because they can load a lot more in a 20’ container and therefore they can invoice more. That’s the idea”, Duncan said.  The operational costs are lowered also since there is no need to use pallets and forklifts.

Flexitank packaging is ideal for the petrochemical and food industries, although any non-hazardous product can be transported in a BIG Red Flexitank by road, rail or vessel.

Duncan used wine as an example, “In a 24,000 liter flexitank we can load the equivalent of 32,000 bottles of wine or 2,666 cases.  But if you use a 20’ container and want to ship cases (of wine), you can only stow 1,400.”

EPT has representatives in Guadalajara from where they cover central Mexico, Manzanillo and the Pacific coast. The company is headquartered in Houston and services the Monterrey area from this office.