ONTARIO, CANADA - CHEP is expanding work with major retailers throughout the Ontario market, having recently unveiled a case study with wholesaler and re-packer Mike & Mike's Organics that shows improvement for the company’s competitive edge, as well as those it works with. Coming off of the case, CHEP’s Jason Peattie, Director of Sales and Marketing for CHEP Canada, and Mike & Mike’s General Manager, Marco Capizzo, took the time to tell me the origins of the partnership and how it has come along.

“We were founded in 2004 and are still one of the only certified organic warehouses in our region. We pride ourselves on doing that and doing it correctly,” Marco explains. “We want to operate as clean as we can and tie up all loose ends, so the CHEP pallet program works better for us than what we were doing prior. Our customers are looking for it, so therefore we want to participate in that and are asking our vendors to do so well.”

Organic and sustainability are inherently intertwined to me, a bridge that is shown further in the study the two organizations unveiled. According to a press release, CHEP’s 48x40 blue pallets provide an annual reduction of 3,156 pounds of solid waste and 2,381 pounds of CO2 versus white wood.

“We just started really enhancing our sustainability initiatives, so we’ve been really focused on trying to help some of our customers drive more sustainable and efficient operations,” Jason shares. “We’re looking to help people understand that CHEP is a pioneer of the circular economy. Our reuse model is really the way to go as we move into the future. A lot of linear operating models are disappearing, while we can use, recycle, and do all these things faster, taking waste out of the supply chain and enhancing the way the product moves to the store from show room.”

Use of high-quality pallets are reportedly expected to reduce damage and increase customer satisfaction. To that, Marco adds benefits he didn’t expect when he learned more about and integrated CHEP.

“It is much easier to obtain good-quality pallets that are consistent, rather than dealing with their being broken, falling apart, or any possible contamination," he says. "It’s cleaned up our warehouse—you have no idea how many pieces of pallet board are around a warehouse! That alone was such a help to us.”

Looking back just a few years prior, CHEP was not yet a fit for Mike & Mike’s. Marco explains to me that the wholesaler initially worked mostly with independent retailers in the Canadian market who couldn’t accommodate the pallets, but has since grown into serving more chain retailers.

Jason describes CHEP as the ‘invisible backbone’ of the supply chain, serving as the partner everyone in the business forgets is there to make the process more seamless. But when it comes to how it can serve retailers, he doesn’t hesitate.

“One of the biggest things retailers are looking at it is how to take labor out of the store. So, we are working right now to replenish a static bin of 'X.’ Rather than having to continually replenish, or deploy labor to refill, if you put something in a fractional asset that can ship store-ready, whether on a shelf or in an aisle, it’s simple and puts labor-savings back into the displays and marketing and other areas,” Jason says.

As both operations continue to look toward a more sustainable, synchronized future, Marco tells me that the benefits can only increase.

“Overall, the CHEP team really helped educate us all, myself included, on the program. Education and learning about what the program is really all about really drove me to look into it further. Once that happened, Eliza Debski, Business Development Manager–Central Region, CHEP Canada, came in, talked us through it and helped us work out a program that worked for us. It’s really beneficial with no negatives, and the relationship continues to grow as we continue to grow in customers that fit the program,” he concludes.

As CHEP, Mike & Mike’s, and other industry organizations in our industry continue to expand sustainable efforts, AndNowUKnow will report the latest.

CHEPMike & Mike's Organics