Customer profile: Leading UK wholesaler who provide third-party re-packing as an added value service
Third-party logistics play an essential role in the supply chain. Our customer, a leading UK wholesaler and re-packer, was looking to minimise costs.
Within the customer’s business, the re-pack operation is meant to be a zero-cost, added value service, so reducing labour and material costs was a priority. Enhanced productivity, to help cope with demand, would also be a benefit.
After meeting with this customer and understanding their operation, our packaging experts set about reviewing various areas in the supply chain.
One of the most labour intensive and costly areas of their re-pack operation was the heat shrink film and machinery that was being used to re-bundle goods. Not only were the sleeves being used costly, they were difficult to source. Plus, extra temporary staff were required for the pack line, as the process was so manual.
Our packaging experts suggested introducing Sealed Air Cryovac® shrink film with a Sontex heat shrink tunnel. Introducing this solution would allow our customer to reduce labour requirements. Only two packers would be needed as the solution removed steps from the re-pack process.
The new machinery offered more packing flexibility and efficiency, while the Cryovac® film provided enhanced pack durability. Using Cryovac® would also allow our customer to cut waste, as it weighs 70% less than regular film.
Installing the new Sontex heat shrink tunnel would mean an investment of £20,000. To ensure our customer could justify this investment, our team complete cost analysis and arranged a machine demo. This enabled the customer to see a mixed pallet of their stock re-bundled using the new film and choose a custom build for their new Sontex heat shrink tunnel.
Since making the decision to use the solution we recommended, our customer has made a 50% labour cost-saving across core re-pack lines.
In addition, the new machinery installed returned on investment within 3 months, and will last for years to come – future proofing the operation.
The new machinery has also enabled our customer to pack more efficiently, more than doubling the number packs completed per minute.
Our customer says “Working with Network Packaging has been great. The team there are very communicative, and they have built a real partnership with us, so I feel like we share the same ethos. They’re helpful and friendly, and importantly, they’re always working to find packaging solutions that are right for us.”