New pallets and skids in North Carolina
North Carolina’s pallet demand comes from two very different places. Its pharmaceutical plants employ 26,998 people, third in the country and 2.4 times the national concentration. Its meat and poultry plants employ 35,715, also third. One needs clean, dry pallets that pass a quality audit; the other needs pallets that survive freezers and wet floors.
Chemical manufacturing, at 47,758 jobs, is the state’s largest manufacturing user of drums and totes, and plastics adds 27,700. Mecklenburg County, around Charlotte, leads in warehousing with 12,290 jobs, with Wake and Guilford behind.
For the pharmaceutical side see pharmaceutical pallets; for poultry, meat and poultry; for chemicals, drum pallets on a 48 x 48.
Illustrative imageWhere the pallets go
| Industry | Jobs, 2025 | Common footprint |
|---|---|---|
| Food manufacturing | 61,441 | 48 x 40 |
| Chemical manufacturing | 47,758 | 48 x 48 |
| Meat and poultry processing | 35,715 | 48 x 40 |
| Plastics product manufacturing | 27,700 | Sized to the bag |
| Pharmaceutical manufacturing | 26,998 | 48 x 40 |
Private-sector jobs, BLS QCEW 2025.
Buying in North Carolina
North Carolina makes medicines at 2.4 times the national concentration, with 26,998 pharmaceutical jobs. Those plants and their warehouses want dry, bark-free pallets of a consistent size and a written spec they can file. Charlotte’s Mecklenburg County leads warehousing with 12,290 jobs, followed by Wake at 6,635, and food manufacturing employs 61,441. Guilford County, around Greensboro, adds 4,160 warehousing jobs, and auto parts plants employ 13,690. There are 590 warehousing establishments in the state, with 2.87% of US warehousing jobs.
The two trades want opposite things from wood. Pharmaceutical warehouses want pallets that are dry, clean and free of bark and splinters; poultry plants want pallets that survive washing and freezing. Both are new-lumber pallets, specified differently, and both can be written down and repeated on every order.
Send the size, the load per pallet, the quantity and a North Carolina delivery ZIP. We write the build down as a spec, quote new pallets against it with delivery priced in, and reorders follow the same sheet.
Quote new pallets for North Carolina
Every pallet is quoted to a written spec, wherever the dock is. Give the delivery ZIP with the size, load and quantity.
- Delivery
- ZIP code in North Carolina
- Pallet size
- Stringer length first
- Load weight
- Per pallet, in pounds
Not sure of a line? Leave it blank. Size, load weight and quantity are enough to start a quote.
The builds North Carolina’s trades use
- Food and groceryThe 48 x 40 at its home: distribution centers, food plants and store docks, and why dry, clean lumber matters.
- Drums and chemicalsFour drums on a 48 x 48, boards under every chime, and racking full containers safely.
- Meat and poultryBoxed product into blast freezers: a close deck, dried lumber, one-way builds.
- Plastics and bulk bagsA full, smooth deck under resin bags that slump into any gap.
- PharmaceuticalClean, dry, documented pallets for audited warehouses.