Highlights

  • Brambles operates a global share-and-reuse network through CHEP.
  • FY26 digital initiatives combined asset-level insights with recovery priorities.
  • Machine learning models draw on customer loss records and field-team information.
  • Asset control and repair capacity remain important operational considerations.

Brambles Limited (ASX:BXB) provides reusable pallets, crates and containers to businesses moving goods through supply chains, primarily under its CHEP brand. Its pooling model depends on assets returning to circulation after use. In FY26, Brambles expanded the application of digital monitoring and analytics to improve visibility over equipment movements, direct recovery activity and reduce avoidable asset losses.

Smart Assets and the Scale of the CHEP Network

As at 30 June 2026, Brambles (ASX:BXB) operated in approximately 60 countries, managing around 352 million pallets, crates and containers through a network of more than 750 service centres. Customers use shared transport equipment rather than maintaining wholly separate inventories, while the company coordinates issuance, collection, inspection, repair and reuse across numerous locations.

Tracking every movement presents practical challenges because pallets pass through manufacturers, distributors, retailers and other premises. In its 2026 reporting, Brambles described asset digitisation through serialisation, targeted diagnostics and continuous diagnostics in selected regions. Its Serialisation+ programme in Chile brings these approaches together in a trial designed to improve service and identify points where equipment may leave expected flows.

How Digital Information Supports Recovery Decisions

Brambles (ASX:BXB) uses data from smart and serialised assets alongside operational records to examine the flow of equipment across the network. Rather than treating every unreturned pallet identically, digital tools can help locate potential loss points and focus intervention on particular customers, routes or facilities. The company reported further scaling of initiatives that model physical pallet movements and target loss hotspots during FY26.

Brambles also reported developing machine learning models that incorporate historical losses by customer, field-team observations and smart-pallet insights. These inputs help prioritise recovery activity and examine repeated exceptions. The approach is not evidence that all assets carry live tracking devices, nor does it establish precise real-time locations for every pallet. It supports better informed decisions about where recovery teams and operational resources may be useful.

FY26 Performance and Operating Constraints

For FY26, Brambles (ASX:BXB) reported sales revenue of US$7,042.9 million, an increase of 2% at constant currency, and underlying profit of US$1,494.4 million, up 4% at constant currency. The company also reported return on capital invested of 22.6%, up 0.4 percentage points at constant currency. These group measures reflect multiple commercial and operational influences, not digital tracking in isolation.

Its annual report noted higher uncompensated pallet losses in the United States and Europe. In the US, repair-capacity constraints contributed to pallet availability problems and increased unauthorised use in customer and retailer networks. Asset monitoring therefore operates alongside maintenance capacity, customer processes and collection activity. Digital detection alone cannot eliminate physical recovery costs or restore pallets that are damaged, unavailable or outside accessible channels.

Customer Visibility and Practical Limits

Beyond equipment control, Brambles (ASX:BXB) refined digital customer solutions during FY26, including applications for supply-chain quality assurance and promotional execution. Asset information can help customers understand product conditions, journey delays and supply-chain exceptions. The commercial contribution of these solutions depends on adoption, reliable data and their ability to support repeatable operational improvements.

Key Insights

Brambles (ASX:BXB) is applying connected assets and analytics to a longstanding pooling challenge: keeping reusable equipment circulating across complex supply networks. FY26 disclosures show a combination of digital diagnostics, recovery prioritisation and operational improvements. The effectiveness of this approach can be considered through disclosed asset efficiency, loss experience, repair performance and the ongoing development of customer-facing digital services.