2020 The Package Playground
November 19, 2020
Issue 212
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As many companies have acknowledged, for better or for worse, 2020 has become a battleground for produce companies. It’s no secret, produce does move the freight market. It has the strongest pull on rates, hot and cold parts of the country, and if you’ve forgotten what month it is, chances are you can just reference what produce is being yielded in our great country. So, what happens when you have ten, twenty, or even fifty excellent farms to supply pears and apples to Walmart? How does a consumer decide between a select set of professional farmers’ products? The answer is short, and now it’s even colorful: Packaging.
If you’re someone who has the pleasure of working in the supply chain industry, maybe a budding broker, or an opportunistic owner/operator, you know how important packaging supplies are! One of the most fast-paced, vital, and common commodities is and always will be packaging. I remember searching high and low for good cardboard, or plastic packaging manufacturers with the promises of endless freight. So, how has this changed in the last few years to today?
Everyone can agree packaging has always served a primary purpose. You need your goods packaged either for distribution or to some operational effect. Typically, this is based on a tight schedule where missing a shipment can be incredibly costly and may go on to affect the supply chain in a wave starting at production. Now, packaging has become a sharpened sword to go forth into battle for produce companies. As Kristin Yerecic Scott, marketing director of Yerecic label says “Many studies have shown, we have less than three seconds to catch shoppers’ attention in the store, so it is critical that your message [works] for your brand”. She later says something I’ve always said, which verbatim is that the packaging of a product, is the only thing that remains with the product beyond the pallet and the driver.
With many more companies catching on to the effectiveness of enticing packaging on their products we are seeing several changes in the supply chain industry. The first change we’ve seen is the obvious switch to more cosmetically appealing packaging in grocery stores. I’m sure you’ve seen the “new” clamshells, the colorful corrugated cardboards, and even the shift from plastic bags to individual cradle cases for bulk apples and pears. It’s all for a reason, just like in nature the brightest flowers and fruits are picked first, so is the most appealing packing. With so many consumers wandering amongst brands they’ve never heard of, they search with their eyes first. It is a valuable first step to immediately transmit brand messages and education to consumers.
Produce packaging companies think in a way that to me, is very insightful. To the companies in the produce sector, as described by Joe Bradford, VP of Sales for Flexible Packaging, the packaging is “the billboard, the available real estate to educate our customers”. Now with extra space on packaging normal unused, there can be room for a company’s other products or complimentary ones. This encourages ideas of recipes and supplemental purchases for a consumer’s shopping list.
So, how does this affect the supply chain on the logistics side? Well, since this is an inevitable shift for produce, naturally the carrier side was considered as well. With new packaging being taken into mind, we can see more efficient pallet loading. Some brands have gone as far as to make new packaging stackable, smaller, better geometrical shapes, or even load-bearing. This allows for more efficient use, and a reduction of damages, in each pallet loaded and unloaded. While this isn’t a huge change for the experience of carriers, it will allow for fewer damages, and it makes it more worthwhile to spend that money on premier transportation services. Often in produce, details can be fast and loose with the phrasing “Full load” being tossed around a lot more than actual weights vs dry commodities. A move towards more predictable, and more cost-effective pallet counts per load is a small, but well-appreciated change coming to the industry.
With all this in mind, where do we see packaging moving to the future? There are so many directions that are sprouting up. Maggie Travis with the Rice Fruit Company says “The key is bringing fresh from the farm feel”, and goes on to detail how stores are starting to display simple ingredients to the front of the stores with season changes to appeal to consumer tastes and make these same produce goods, staples in households. Fancy bags over apples, with shiny white handles, and translucent plastic pulls the eyes and empties the kiosk. Compostable packaging, recyclable packaging, and even produce friendly non-BPA plastics. If you ask me where the future is heading, it’s going in the direction of a fancier, more valuable position for our average consumer. Where it was just “an apple” before, packaging has made sure that it becomes the apple now.
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Carman O'Leary
Editor
Allen Lund Company
MarCom - Los Angeles
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Iyer Amruther, San Antonio |
Iyer Amruthur is a business development specialist in the ALC San Antonio office and has two years of logistics experience. Iyer attended The University of Georgia where he obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, with a minor in Communications. |
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About Allen Lund Company:
Specializing as a national third-party transportation broker with nationwide offices and over 500 employees, the Allen Lund Company works with shippers and carriers across the nation to transport dry, refrigerated, and flatbed freight; additionally, the Allen Lund Company has an international division licensed by the FMC as an OTI-NVOCC (#019872NF), and a software and logistics division, ALC Logistics.
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