Kellogg's Gary Piwko, Director of Remarketing and Returns Management of Kellogg Company will be speaking at Sustainability in Packaging 2013 on Building More Value: Improved Packaging and Process Performance throughout the Product Lifecycle. Gary has worked for Kellogg Company since 1985 and has been involved with unsaleables management since 1995. Leading into this year's conference, Gary shared with us why he thinks that the topic of 'unsaleables' is key for all packaging and sustainability professionals to get up-to-speed on and much more:
2013 will be the first time we address the topic of 'unsaleables' at the Sustainability in Packaging Conference. Why do you think packaging and sustainability professionals should become more familiar with this issue?
"Unsaleables" are product that is shipped to our customers but then cannot be sold because of damage, expiration or discontinuation. Favorable unsaleables performance is a byproduct of successful packaging sustainability. If unsaleables performance digresses, it may mean the packaging sustainability initiative was not effective.
At Kellogg, we put a strong focus on reducing waste, including waste from unsaleables. We conduct more than 100 week-long audits annually at customers' warehouses and retail stores throughout North America. We also work with the U.S. military in the U.S., Europe and Asia. The audits provide data and measure performance relating to unsaleables, which gives us direction on where improvements are needed across Kellogg and our retail customer supply chains. We then collaborate with retailers to reduce this waste and improve efficiencies.
Over the past 10 years, we have decreased unsaleables by nearly 50 percent in many of our businesses, resulting in about 20 million fewer packages of food wasted annually.
What are the 3 key packaging innovations that reverse logistics professionals would like to see in the CPG industry?
1. Packaging professionals being more engaged with the reverse logistics discipline
2. Be more engaged with the supply chain. Can the supply chain execute your design consistently?
3. Increase shelf life where appropriate and focus more on material handling and shipping.
What are you looking forward to hear at Sustainability in Packaging 2013?
I'm looking forward to hearing how packaging professionals are taking a holistic, cradle to grave approach in designing and evaluating their packaging designs. As a first time attendee at this conference, I'm also looking forward to meeting a number of new contacts throughout the industry.
More about Gary Piwko
PiwkoGary's presentation at Sustainability in Packaging 2013 - taking place in the opening session on Maintaining the Value of Packaging - will cover how to evaluate packaging holistically throughout a product's value chain using Reverse Logistics; understanding unsaleables and how they complicate partnership negotiations; show examples of packaging solutions that cause unsaleables problems; and explain how Reverse Logistics is important as a program to evaluate sustainability of packaging and processes. After this highly insightful presentation you'll be able to answer the question: 'How do I make this systems view a core competency to drive change throughout my organization?'
Gary is a past co-chair of the GMA/FMI Joint Industry Unsaleables Leadership Team. He has been a member of the Leadership Team since 1998. Kellogg Company won a GMA Unsaleables Innovation Award in 2005 acknowledging the results of their unsaleables management system. Kellogg Company also won GMA/FMI unsaleables collaboration award and a Supermarket News Unsaleables Leadership Award in 2011.
Gary is a current member of the Food Waste Reduction Alliance which is led by the Grocery Manufacturers of America, Food Marketing Institute and National Restaurant Association and member companies.
