Return Logistics – don’t waste valuable materials and don’t waste cost, say Octobox

With our world changing rapidly, we are having to evolve constantly. Pivoting from our original goals to meet the demands or expectations of our supply chain or the end consumers. This is what makes the Juice Industry so exciting. Things change in commodities – potentially on a daily basis and today this also accounts for how efficient we manage our supply chain.

Historically the juice industry was born into steel drums, a very robust packaging which was required to ship the cargo in open hatch reefer vessels. With the introduction of reefer containers this type of packaging was no longer required, but nevertheless not changed by most industries, as the steel drum had evolved to an industrial standard. The supply chain had adapted to this type of packaging from filling, to handling, to tipping as well as recipes for blending were based on 200L units.

Things change; It is no longer necessary to accept the cost of steel drums, which have doubled or tripled in price depending on your location, it is not economic to accept the high tara weight or their very high carbon footprint. All of this for a one-way packaging? These facts can be difficult to explain to consumers, hence why more and more Juice Industries are changing to returnable packaging with the aim to reduce both their cost and their carbon footprint.

So, how does this work?

Simple, the packaging has to fold that well, that when its empty you can carry say 400 empty units in one 40” container, but when full only 20 units are used to ship to your destination. The ratio is 20 to 1 in this example. This reduces the cost of returning each unit to five-to-ten dollars per trip. Can you buy this new packaging material at the same cost of the return? The answer is ‘no’, this is how you save cost.

You have saved the cost of buying new packaging and continue to do so with every trip you make. You also saved carbon emission – at NO cost, to the contrary you can now certify your carbon reduction and sell it or even advertise it to your customer as a benefit.

No matter what you produce be it concentrate, NFC, puree or pulps, determine which market you have not been able to reach, because your logistic cost including the packaging are too high and Change the cost.

We were asked to write about return logistics options for the juice industry and of course we would like to promote our own product the Octobox, but more important is that you keep your industry cost to a minimum and help us all to reduce carbon emission – especially where the alternative is so easily available.

There are quite a few solutions for returnable packing material on the market, please take your time and find the solution best suitable for you. If we at Walton Industrial Containers can be of help or assistance, please contact us and we will help you find a solution for your specific product and destination.

Or visit us at www.octobox.co.uk – we want to hear from you.

Walton Industrial Container/Octobox