EIC Accelerator Check: PRS and Its Welded Plastic Pallet Repairs

Plastic Repair System 2011 SL, which trades as PRS, repairs the plastic pallets, crates, folding boxes and street bins that industry and cities usually throw away once they crack. Its method welds broken parts back together with a plastic thread it formulates and makes itself. The company was one of the winners of the EIC SME Instrument Phase 2, the Horizon 2020 forerunner of the EIC Accelerator, at the 5 June 2019 cut-off, listed under Pamplona in the European Commission's list of selected companies, where PRS is the only company named for the project. The project, also called PRS, received an EU contribution of €1,641,755.15 towards a total cost of €2,345,364.50 and ran from 1 November 2019 to 31 October 2021, according to CORDIS.

Seven years after the award, PRS is active. The Spanish company register, as reproduced by Empresia and Infonif, lists it as trading, with accounts filed in 2025 and its auditor reappointed in January 2025. In April 2026 the company reported the end of a two-year research project on repairing small plastic boxes, funded by the Government of Navarra and the EU's regional development fund, on its news page.

Welding Instead of Shredding

Plastic pallets and crates that circulate between factories, bottlers and supermarkets are built to be reused for five to ten years, but once one breaks it is usually recycled, burned or landfilled, the company wrote in its 2018 Phase 1 proposal. PRS heat-welds the damaged area with high-density virgin plastic thread and reinforces weak points. It says independent laboratories certified that a repaired item recovers 100% of its function and at least 98% of its original strength, and that a repair costs less than a third of a new item; those claims appear in both CORDIS project summaries and in a 2020 WIPO case study, but the laboratory reports themselves are not public.

The difference from the established alternative, mechanical recycling, is that the item keeps its shape and does not need to be melted and moulded again. The thread carries particles that only show under ultraviolet or infrared light, so a buyer can check whether a crate has been repaired. That feature is protected by US patent US11059245, assigned to the company with a 2016 priority date and granted in July 2021. The WIPO case study lists an earlier Spanish patent, a utility model, a European patent and two international applications.

What the EIC Project Promised and What CORDIS Shows

The Phase 2 proposal promised to complete the technical solution and find partners for international expansion, building on tests with six multinational companies during Phase 1, a €50,000 study that ran from February to July 2018 according to CORDIS. The grant agreement was signed on 29 October 2019 and the project ended on its scheduled date. One subsidiary, Plastic Repair Service Zona Norte SL, took part as a linked third party with €95,375 of the EU money.

The final periodic report lists six results: tested automation for damage classification, quality inspection, pallet dismantling and layer-pad repair; an in-house production line for an improved thread with RFID traceability; three new subsidiaries in Térmens (Lleida), Benifaió (Valencia) and Puebla (Mexico) between 2019 and 2021; customer service procedures with ISO 9001 and 14001 audits; two new patent applications; and an updated business plan with an investor dossier. A CORDIS results article from March 2022 adds that two automatic welding machines with machine vision were built during the trials, and that PRS planned new workshops in Portugal and the United Kingdom that year and ISO 22000 food safety certification.

1. Automated repair machinesDeliveredTwo welding machines reported by CORDIS; European patent EP4282634 for an automatic plastic sheet repair machine, priority January 2021, granted October 2024.
2. Own thread production and traceabilityCompany-reportedThread line and RFID pilot described only in the company's own CORDIS report.
3. Two new patent applicationsOne foundThe EP4282634 family (ES, EP, US, PL, MX) dates from the project; a second filing could not be identified.
4. Partner network and new plantsDeliveredTérmens, Benifaió and Puebla during the project; Poland and a second Mexican plant later.
5. New financingDelivered€4M round in September 2022.
6. Workshops in Portugal and the UK, 2022Not achievedNeither country appears among the company's sites in 2026; no opening was announced.
7. ISO 22000 certificationUnverifiedThe company site names ISO 14067, not ISO 22000.

Money, Plants and People Since 2021

In September 2022 PRS closed a €4 million round led by Impact Partners, with its existing investor Easo Ventures, to expand abroad and automate further, according to the company and Invest in Navarra. At the time it had four repair plants, three in Spain and one in Mexico, and more than 65 employees. The register shows a matching capital increase of €490,812.19 plus €54,535, entered on 14 September 2022, which took share capital to €2,352,242.89, and the creation of two share classes, according to Empresia.

For 2022 the company reported repairing 236,493 plastic items weighing 3,129.36 tonnes, 14% more than in 2021, and announced plants in Poland and Mexico for 2023, in a release also reported by Invest in Navarra. The Mexican plant opened in Saltillo in October 2024 with an investment of €500,000 and 50 jobs, according to Vanguardia and Players of Life. The company's own announcement put the investment at 10 million Mexican pesos. Its contact page today lists the second Mexican site as "PRS México Monclova" at an address in Frontera, Coahuila, not in Saltillo; the reason for the difference is not public. The Polish plant, in Kamionka Mała, appears on the same page and is mentioned by Vanguardia, but its opening date could not be verified.

Named customers differ by source: Vanguardia cites Magna, Adient, Ball and Arca, Players of Life cites Lear and Magna. Neither the size of those contracts nor group revenue is public. Empresia puts the parent company's annual turnover above €2.5 million and lists 11 employees, against the more than 65 the company reported for the group in 2022; Infonif masks its staff figure. Detailed accounts sit behind paid registers and could not be checked.

The expansion plans voiced in October 2024 also remain open. At the Saltillo opening the company said plants in Italy and Turkey would open before the end of 2024, with India, the Bajío and north-west Mexico to follow, according to Vanguardia and Players of Life. In October 2026 the company's sites are still in Spain, Mexico and Poland only. PRS is not listed among the roughly 315 companies in the EIC Fund portfolio, which is consistent with a grant-only award. CORDIS lists no EU project for the company beyond its two SME Instrument grants.

Where It Fits in EU Policy

Reuse of transport packaging is now written into EU law. The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation sets binding reuse targets for 2030 that cover transport packaging, 40% for transport and sales packaging, with indicative targets for 2040, according to the European Parliament's Legislative Observatory and Baker McKenzie. More pallets and crates kept in reuse pools means more breakages to fix, which is the market PRS serves, and every repaired crate is one that does not have to be moulded from new polymer.

The Verdict

Neither PRS nor the EIC was asked for comment for this article. It is based on public records and published statements, linked throughout.