Unsaleable Goods Reduction Report Provides Consumer Goods Sector with Actions to Address $15 Billion Challenge

FMI-GMA online Unsaleables Reduction educational platform to launch by end of 2017

ATLANTA -- A new report provides the consumer goods sector with proven, tangible solutions to reduce the nearly $15 billion annual cost of unsaleable goods, or products that cannot be sold due to their condition.

The Collaborative Strategies to Reduce Unsaleables report was released today at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) annual conference. The report ranks solutions with a track record of success and provides implementation guidance. The report was completed by CHEP for the Trading Partner Alliance (TPA), an industry affairs leadership group formed by the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). A supporting report outlining the unsaleable goods challenge, Unsaleables 101, can be accessed here.

“Reducing unsaleable goods is a priority for retailers, manufacturers and their suppliers,” said Daniel Triot, Senior Director at TPA. “This report effectively documents the causes of unsaleable goods and provides trading partners with clear instruction for reducing them and the impact they have on efficiency, sustainability and profitability.”

The recommendations are based on an extensive, year-long analysis predicated on dozens of interviews with industry experts conducted by CHEP for the TPA Joint Industry Unsaleables Leadership Team (JIULT). The study captured and analyzed 48 unsaleable goods reduction strategies and placed them into seven categories based on frequency of use and impact:

1. Planning and Review
2. Collaborative Shelf Life Management
3. Testing Package and Unit Load Performance
4. Package Labeling
5. Receiving and Warehousing
6. Sharing UPC and POS Level Data
7. Product Rotation and Display

Recommendations in the report fall into four categories – increase, continue, monitor or ignore – and each is identified as the responsibility of retailers or manufacturers, or as a collaborative opportunity.

“We are honored to be selected by the TPA for this project, and to be a member of theJIULT,” said Todd Hoff, Vice President of

 Marketing and Customer Solutions at CHEP. “As a collaborative industry team, we can successfully limit the impact of unsaleable goods on both retailers and manufacturers – just a 1% reduction through process improvements would be a collective gain of more than $100 million annually.”

A TPA online Unsaleables Reduction educational platform is expected to launch by the end of 2017. The educational platform will contain detailed information and tools to help trading partners review their supply chains and identify and implement effective unsaleables reduction strategies and solutions.

About the FMI-GMA Trading Partner Alliance

The Trading Partner Alliance (TPA) is a joint industry affairs-industry relations leadership group formed by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) to develop and address a shared retailer-manufacturer agenda on supply chain efficiency issues, the application of information technology, executed jointly by GMA and FMI and overseen by the boards of directors of both organizations. 

About CHEP

CHEP is a global provider of supply chain solutions serving the consumer goods, fresh food, beverage, manufacturing and retail sectors in more than 60 countries. CHEP offers a wide range of logistics and operational platforms and support services that are designed to increase performance and lower risk while improving environmental sustainability. CHEP’s 11,500-plus employees and more than 275 million pallets and containers deliver comprehensive coverage and exceptional value, supporting more than 500,000 customer touch-points for global brands such as Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s and Nestlé. CHEP is part of the Brambles Group, the operator of a portfolio that includes specialized container solutions for the food, beverage and automotive sectors, as well as IFCO, the leading provider of Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) to the fresh food supply chain globally. CHEP is part of the Brambles Group, the operator of a portfolio that includes specialized container solutions for the food, beverage and automotive sectors, as well as IFCO, the leading provider of Reusable Plastic Containers (RPCs) to the fresh food supply chain globally.

For more information, visit the company’s website at www.chep.com or follow us on Twitter @CHEPna and LinkedIn. Please also visit our YouTube channel.