Nestable and Stackable Pallets: Wisconsin

Wisconsin, by road

I-94 links Milwaukee to Chicago and Minneapolis, and I-41 runs up the Fox River valley to Green Bay. For a plastic pallet buyer in Wisconsin, the geography sets the route and the route sets the empty return: I-94, I-90, I-43, I-39 and I-41 carry most of what leaves, and every empty pallet that comes back has to ride the same road.

The counties with the most warehousing jobs are Kenosha (8,358), Milwaukee (4,244) and Waukesha (3,634), which is 49.1 percent of the state's 33,054. It shares a land border with Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois.

Warehousing in numbers

Refrigerated space matters because a freezer is hard on plastic; the cold guide says what to ask for. Wisconsin held 297 million cubic feet of gross refrigerated warehouse capacity on October 1, 2025.

Reading the numbers

• Kenosha County has 8,358 warehousing jobs, 25.3 percent of Wisconsin's 33,054, the most in the state.
• Milwaukee County has 4,244 warehousing jobs, 12.8 percent of Wisconsin's 33,054, 4,114 fewer than Kenosha County.
• Waukesha County has 3,634 warehousing jobs, 11.0 percent of Wisconsin's 33,054, 4,724 fewer than Kenosha County.
• Dairy product manufacturing employs 28,840 people in Wisconsin, 0.87 for every warehousing job.
• Fruit and vegetable preserving employs 11,014 people in Wisconsin, 0.33 for every warehousing job.
• Plastics product manufacturing employs 29,656 people in Wisconsin, 0.90 for every warehousing job.
• Food manufacturing employs 81,993 people in Wisconsin, 2.48 for every warehousing job.
• Meat and poultry processing employs 16,349 people in Wisconsin, 0.49 for every warehousing job.
• Wisconsin holds 1.74 percent of US warehousing jobs, about one in every 57, spread over 428 establishments averaging 77 jobs each.
• Milwaukee accounts for 8,262 warehousing jobs, 25.0 percent of Wisconsin's.
• Green Bay accounts for 584 warehousing jobs, 1.8 percent of Wisconsin's.
• Michigan has 40,753 warehousing jobs, 1.23 times the 33,054 in Wisconsin.
• Minnesota has 17,921 warehousing jobs, 0.54 times the 33,054 in Wisconsin.
• Iowa has 19,824 warehousing jobs, 0.60 times the 33,054 in Wisconsin.
• Illinois has 80,071 warehousing jobs, 2.42 times the 33,054 in Wisconsin.

Who ships pallets here

In Wisconsin, dairy product manufacturing employs 28,840. Dairy moves through cold rooms and wash bays, so the pallet needs to take both without losing the rating the sheet prints. It tends to lean on stackable or nestable in a cold-friendly resin, usually in 48 x 40 in, and to ask about the maker's cold performance and wash guidance.

Dairy product manufacturing is the trade where Wisconsin is most concentrated, at 8.9 times the national share of employment. A buyer in that trade will tend to ask the questions in the last column first.

The empty return

An illustration, not a forecast: if each of 428 warehouse establishments in Wisconsin sent back 500 empty pallets in a week, that would be 214,000 pallets. The table counts the 53 ft trailers that takes at three makers' published nestable figures, beside the 540 per trailer of a rackable.

Next door

Metros in Wisconsin with their own page: Milwaukee and Green Bay.

Words on this page

Slip sheet

A thin sheet of plastic or fibreboard used under a load in place of a pallet, handled by a push-pull attachment.

Beam span

The open gap between two rack beams. The longer the span, the lower the load the pallet can carry across it.

ZIP Code Business Patterns

A Census Bureau series that counts establishments by ZIP code and industry.

Polypropylene

Another common pallet resin, lighter and stiffer than some others, with its own behaviour in the cold.

Cross-docking

Moving freight from an inbound truck to an outbound one with little or no storage between.

Recycled content

The share of a pallet moulded from reground plastic. Makers print it as a range, often by colour.

Cruciform base

A base shaped like a plus sign under the pallet, which gives a stable footprint and slides well on conveyors.

Reefer

A refrigerated trailer or container.

Footprint

The length and width of a pallet deck. It is chosen to fit the container, the drum, the bag or the receiving rack.