Provident - Spend Management

20% savings achieved via Packaging RightSourcing

admin — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:45:37 +0000

Provident was engaged by a food service supplier to conduct a market review and strategic sourcing of their packaging requirements. This client was being pressured by their end customer to reduce costs via ingredient, packaging and logistics improvements. After a rigorous evaluation of supply proposals outlining service, quality and pricing using our Right Sourcing methodology, a business award was negotiated that provides our client with improved service & technical offerings, a vendor managed inventory system, an aggressive pricing structure, and methodology that will ensure that the pricing structure will remain competitive and viable for both the supplier and our client.

Plastic Packaging on the Way Out

admin — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:37:13 +0000

Devilish Packaging, Tamed

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Published: June 1, 2011

The Pyranna, the Jokari Deluxe, the Insta Slit, the ZipIt and the OpenIt apply blades and batteries to what should be a simple task: opening a retail package.

But the maddening — and nearly impenetrable — plastic packaging known as clamshells could become a welcome casualty of the difficult economy. High oil prices have manufacturers and big retailers reconsidering the use of so much plastic, and some are aggressively looking for cheaper substitutes.

Read the rest of this article on Plastic Packaging here

How Greed And Green Can Work Together To Produce Good

admin — Tue, 17 May 2011 20:48:03 +0000

How green initiatives can bring about more efficient, more profitable companies

by Richard Watson

Sustainability isn’t easy. It’s tough to implement, and the costs can be even more difficult to quantify, which is why it has taken so long for businesses to embrace the mission. Having developed many a new product over the years, I’ve observed, with a touch of cynicism, the evolving discourse around both the emotional and economic benefits of sustainability. Some of my cynicism stems from the overt greenwashing that has surrounded so many products, doing nothing but cloud the debate, confuse consumers, and ultimately slow the progress of economically viable sustainability. In many ways, it has actually sullied the term “green” to the extent that it pains me to use it when discussing sustainability with my clients.

Click here read the rest of this article on sustainability

Sustainability goals accelerated for CPG company

admin — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:30:27 +0000

Provident Spend Management was recently asked by this client to help it accelerate and achieve their sustainability goals. Over the past few months, Provident Packaging Engineers, using our Right Pack methodology, reduced this client’s plastic consumption by over 150,000 pounds per year, while also increasing the amount of recycled materials used in their packaging by 16%.

Over $500,000 saved for mid-sized CPG company

admin — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:33:14 +0000

Provident Packaging Engineers saved over $500,000 using our proven “Right Pack” methodology. Savings came from lightweighting the material, optimizing the design, and improved pallet and shipping efficiencies.

Why Sustainability Is Winning Over CEOs

admin — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:46:47 +0000

By Duane Stanford

Long a cause célèbre of the eco crowd, sustainable business practices are yielding big savings at companies like PepsiCo and Wal-Mart.

At PepsiCo’s (PEP) Walkers potato chip plant in Leicester, England, steam from the fryers rises through exhaust stacks into the open sky. From his office window, Martyn Seal, the company’s European director of sustainability, watches the wispy clouds and sees nothing but lost resources and wasted cash. To change all that, Seal and his team are working to develop a manufacturing process that will allow them to suck water out of potatoes and even unplug the plant from the public water system.

To read the rest of this article on Sustanability click here.

100+ Design Projects Managed for Turtle Wax

admin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:17:40 +0000

Provident, acting as an outsourced packaging engineering service provider, has recently managed over 100 new packaging development projects. These projects included product restages and new product introductions. Our role included innovation, design, specification development, and line testing of new packaging. One bottle design, Zip Car Wash, received a “Gold Packaging Award” from the National Association of Container Distributors (NACD) for the Household Chemical and Auto category

Consumers Start to Feel Pinch From Higher Grain Prices

admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:59:18 +0000

The Wall Street Journal

By SCOTT KILMAN And JULIE JARGON

The surge in grain prices that has been stoking food inflation for months in much of the world is beginning to seep into U.S. supermarkets and restaurants.

U.S. food prices will jump between 3% and 4% this year, the U.S. Agriculture Department forecast Thursday, after rising in 2010 by the slowest rate since 1962.

The cost of processing food is soaring in part because foreign demand for U.S. agricultural commodities is surging at the same time the rising price of gasoline is stimulating the biofuel industry’s appetite for corn to make ethanol.

To read the rest of the article on rising food costs click here

2011 Trends in Packaging

admin — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:22:34 +0000

2011 Trends in Packaging
by Wendy Hunt
Anne Reid

In 2011, expect packaging to become more sustainable, incorporate recent technological advances, and feed into consumers’ desire for their purchases to serve a greater purpose.

The burning question for 2011

The challenge will be finding ways to do more with less—reducing waste, using fewer natural resources, and cutting down transport distance—while using packaging to communicate brand promise and the actions that back it up.

Find the Packaging Trends in 2011 complete article here.

14–18% Savings on Corrugated Sourcing Project for Mid-Size CPG Company

admin — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 12:31:30 +0000

Provident was engaged by a leading North American manufacturer, distributor and marketer of high quality cleaning products to conduct an in-depth market review of their corrugated requirements. Working closely with the client, we used our proven RightSourcing program to identify and deliver savings of 14% – 18% on this multi-million dollar, multi-facility review. These results were achieved in spite of the extreme volatility which currently exists in the corrugated markets. In addition, Provident has implemented strict methodology and timing mechanisms in order to provide robust cost control and management systems.