{"id":3082,"date":"2026-10-23T14:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T14:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.granta-automation.co.uk\/news\/?p=3082"},"modified":"2026-10-23T14:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T14:47:17","slug":"palletiser-hire-automating-the-end-of-line-without-a-capital-purchase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.granta-automation.co.uk\/news\/palletiser-hire-automating-the-end-of-line-without-a-capital-purchase\/","title":{"rendered":"Palletiser Hire: Automating the End of Line Without a Capital Purchase"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Most palletiser projects start with a capital purchase. A proposal is written, a business case is built, and the order waits for approval and for the right budget year. For many sites that is the right route. For others it is the reason the palletiser never arrives.

Hire is a different route to the same system. We offer hire on most of our palletiser range, at an hourly rate, with no capital purchase and with the system replaced every five years. This article sets out how it works, what the rate includes, and where it normally makes sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


How palletiser hire work<\/strong>s

<\/strong>The arrangement is deliberately simple.

We quote an hourly rate.<\/strong> For most systems this falls between \u00a33 and \u00a312 per hour, depending on the palletiser specified and the shift pattern it will run. Every quote we issue shows the hire rate alongside the outright price and the leasing option, so the three routes can be compared on the same page.

The system is replaced every five years.<\/strong> Where a hire continues beyond five years, we either replace the palletiser with a new system or significantly reduce the hire cost. The site is never left running a machine that has fallen behind the current range.

Shorter terms are available. <\/strong>Our standard hire runs for three years or more. Where a site cannot commit to that, we consider short-term hire case by case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


What the hourly rate includes
<\/strong>
The palletiser supplied on hire is the same system that would be supplied on purchase. Nothing is removed from the specification.

That includes the easy-programming software<\/a> fitted to every Granta system. An operator enters four dimensions \u2013 length, width, height and weight \u2013 and the software generates the viable stack patterns, ranks them by pallet efficiency and derives the robot paths, clearances, speed profiles and the orientation and grouping of product on the infeed. A new product size takes approximately five minutes to set up and requires no robot-programming skill.

On hire this matters more than it might first appear. With a conventionally programmed palletiser, the purchase price is only part of the cost of ownership. Each product change requires a programmer, and that cost continues for the life of the machine. On a Granta system there is no programming cost to add. The hourly rate is very close to the whole cost of running the palletiser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Hire, lease or buy<\/strong>

<\/strong>All three routes are priced on every quote. The differences are in how the cost is treated, how the decision is approved, and what happens at the end of the term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/td>Buy outright<\/strong><\/td>Lease<\/strong><\/td>Hire<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Upfront cost<\/strong><\/td>Full purchase price<\/td>None<\/td>None<\/td><\/tr>
Approval route<\/strong><\/td>Capex process and board approval<\/td>Finance agreement with the leasing company<\/td>Operating cost, typically signed off within a production or site budget<\/td><\/tr>
Typical term<\/strong><\/td>Not applicable<\/td>Three years<\/td>Three years or more; shorter hire considered case by case<\/td><\/tr>
Ongoing cost<\/strong><\/td>Support contract<\/td>Fixed lease payments, savings normally exceed them from day one<\/td>Between \u00a33 and \u00a312 per hour depending on system and shift pattern<\/td><\/tr>
End of term<\/strong><\/td>You own it from day one<\/td>Palletiser becomes yours for a nominal 1% fee<\/td>System replaced every five years, or hire cost significantly reduced<\/td><\/tr>
Upgrade path<\/strong><\/td>New purchase, or reconfigure the modular cell<\/td>New lease at end of term<\/td>Built in: a new system every five years<\/td><\/tr>
Suits<\/strong><\/td>Businesses with capital available and a stable line<\/td>Businesses that want to own the asset without the upfront cost<\/td>Businesses that want the palletiser as a running cost, with no capex and a built-in upgrade<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Whichever route is chosen, the savings are the same. Labour is redeployed from manual palletising, throughput rises and manual-handling exposure is removed. Our payback calculator<\/a> gives a figure for a specific line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where hire normally applies<\/strong>
Hire is usually the right route where one or more of the following is true:<\/p>\n\n\n\n