UPS (NYSE:UPS) and Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE:SEE) today
announced the opening of a Packaging Innovation Center in
Louisville, Kentucky on the UPS Supply Chain Solutions campus, near
the Worldport® facility, which is the UPS Air Group’s global
headquarters. The center will help solve the packaging and shipping
challenges of e-commerce retailers, and companies in many other
industries, by maximizing efficiency, minimizing waste, reducing
shipping costs, and increasing brand affinity.
This is the next step in a strategic partnership between the two
companies announced in November 2016 designed to help businesses
prepare for the future of supply chains, fulfillment, and packaging
to enable global e-commerce success.
“One of the biggest challenges UPS customers have with
e-commerce, and across other industry segments, is that they
struggle to create efficiencies and enhance profit margins while
still improving consumers’ perception of their brand,” said Alan
Gershenhorn, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer,
UPS. “UPS customers don’t just need supply chain innovation. They
also need packaging innovation. Our partnership with Sealed Air,
and the new Packaging Innovation Center, will allow UPS to bring a
more complete set of solutions as we help customers re-imagine
their entire supply chains, including packaging.”
Brick-and-mortar supply chains have been designed to move in a
linear fashion with standard-sized packaging sent from a supplier
to a warehouse. From the warehouse, products are sent to a store,
where they are unboxed and placed on shelves. In this model,
consumers never see secondary or tertiary packaging. In the new
e-commerce world, everything is upended and consumers now see,
touch and need to dispose of packaging on a more regular basis. As
a result, what consumers think about a brand increasingly starts
with their experience with a product’s packaging.
“The at-home delivery experience is more important than it has
ever been. Consumer expectations for fast, free, on-time delivery
leave businesses and retailers with very little room for error,”
said Jerome Peribere, President and Chief Executive Officer of
Sealed Air. “The partnership between Sealed Air and UPS allows us
to combine our decades of expertise and innovation to help our
customers create those exceptional delivery experiences from the
point of manufacturing all the way through to the last moment of
truth in front of the consumer.”
E-commerce sales between 2015 and 2020 are expected to grow a
cumulative 128.9 percent. Worldwide retail e-commerce sales are
projected to top $4 trillion by 2020, according to eMarketer.1 At
the same time, the change in dynamics with e-commerce logistics and
packaging are creating big opportunities to drive new
efficiencies.
Some of these areas of opportunity include:
- A need for packaging innovation due to inefficient use of labor
resources
- Excessive waste of packaging materials
- Keeping costs down and customer satisfaction up despite
increasing complexity
- A need for three times the logistics space compared with
brick-and-mortar operations2
- Vast proliferation in the number of ways that fulfillment gets
done
- Increased pressure on existing labor resources to produce more,
at higher speeds and lower costs, in more complex operational
environments
- Eliminating the risk of damage and spoilage
- Deploying automation solutions that can not only scale up, but
can also scale back down when needed
The partnership between UPS and Sealed Air is designed to help
customers in each of these areas, and more. Occupying 6,000 square
feet in the UPS Supply Chain Solutions facility, the Packaging
Innovation Center houses a wide array of Sealed Air’s cutting-edge
packaging solutions.
The selection of packaging technology on display includes an
automated system that eliminates the need for outer cartons, which
can reduce dimensional weight by as much as 87 percent; an
automated right-sizing system that eliminates empty void space in
each box by as much as 60 percent; and a portfolio of packaging
work-cell solutions that improve labor productivity, reduce product
damage, and create a consistent, enhanced experience for the end
consumer.
UPS and Sealed Air will also use the Packaging Innovation Center
to provide consulting services, including package performance
analysis to ensure that companies are using the minimum amount of
packaging needed to achieve maximum product protection. Customers
can schedule meetings at the center to see the solutions in action
and request a packaging analysis based on their specific e-commerce
business needs and goals.
As part of the partnership with UPS, Sealed Air is participating
in the UPS Customer Technology Program (CTP), providing packaging
systems and materials. CTP is a customer loyalty program that
connects businesses with best-in-class vendors of hardware,
software, peripherals – and now packaging – to help them gain
efficiencies across their business and enable growth.
In addition to this partnership, UPS also provides solutions to
customers using its Package Design and Test Lab, helping protect
packages before they ship. With high tech equipment that
creates varying levels of temperature, air pressure, shock,
compression and vibration, the lab can simulate moving a package
throughout an entire supply chain. These real world experiences
provide valuable data that helps UPS custom-design solutions for
specific packaging needs. Testing is a compliment to the innovative
packaging options that are offered through the Sealed Air / UPS
partnership.
To learn more about the UPS and Sealed Air partnership, contact
upsseesales@sealedair.com or to schedule a visit to the
Packaging Innovation Center, contact
upsseeshowroom@sealedair.com
About UPS
UPS (NYSE: UPS) is a global leader in logistics, offering a
broad range of solutions including transporting packages and
freight; facilitating international trade, and deploying advanced
technology to more efficiently manage the world of business.
Headquartered in Atlanta, UPS serves more than 220 countries and
territories worldwide. The company can be found on the web
at ups.com and its corporate blog can be found
at longitudes.ups.com. To get UPS news direct,
visit pressroom.ups.com/RSS or follow @UPS_News
About Sealed Air
Sealed Air Corporation creates a world that feels, tastes and
works better. In 2016, the Company generated revenue of
approximately $6.8 billion by helping our customers achieve their
sustainability goals in the face of today’s biggest social and
environmental challenges. Our portfolio of widely recognized
brands, including Cryovac® brand food packaging solutions, Bubble
Wrap® brand cushioning and Diversey® cleaning and hygiene
solutions, enables a safer and less wasteful food supply chain,
protects valuable goods shipped around the world, and improves
health through clean environments. Sealed Air has approximately
23,000 employees who serve customers in 171 countries. To learn
more, visit www.sealedair.com.
Sealed Air Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995 concerning our business, consolidated
financial condition and results of operations. Forward-looking
statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which
are outside our control, which could cause actual results to differ
materially from these statements. Therefore, you should not rely on
any of these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements
can be identified by such words as “anticipates,” “believes,”
“plan,” “assumes,” “could,” “should,” “estimates,” “expects,”
“intends,” “potential,” “seek,” “predict,” “may,” “will” and
similar references to future periods. All statements other than
statements of historical facts included in this press release
regarding our strategies, prospects, financial condition,
operations, costs, plans and objectives are forward-looking
statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, among
others, statements we make regarding expected future operating
results, expectations regarding the results of restructuring and
other programs, anticipated levels of capital expenditures and
expectations of the effect on our financial condition of claims,
litigation, environmental costs, contingent liabilities and
governmental and regulatory investigations and proceedings. The
following are important factors that we believe could cause actual
results to differ materially from those in our forward looking
statements: the tax benefits associated with the Settlement
agreement (as defined in our 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K),
global economic and political conditions, changes in our credit
ratings, changes in raw material pricing and availability, changes
in energy costs, competitive conditions, the success of the
divestiture of the Diversey Care division and related food hygiene
and cleaning business, the success of our restructuring activities,
currency translation and devaluation effects, the success of our
financial growth, profitability, cash generation and manufacturing
strategies and our cost reduction and productivity efforts, the
success of new product offerings, the effects of animal and
food-related health issues, pandemics, consumer preferences,
environmental matters, regulatory actions and legal matters, and
the other information referenced in the “Risk Factors” section
appearing in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, as filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and as revised and
updated by our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports
on Form 8-K. Any forward-looking statement made by us is based only
on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the
date on which it is made. We undertake no obligation to publicly
update any forward looking statement, whether written or oral, that
may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new
information, future developments or otherwise.
1 E-Marketer, (Aug. 2016) “Retail E-Commerce Sales World Wide
2015-2020”
https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Worldwide-Retail-Ecommerce-Sales-Will-Reach-1915-Trillion-This-Year/1014369
2 Prologis Research, (Sept. 2016) “Global E-Commerce Impact on
Logistics Real Estate”
https://www.prologis.com/logistics-industry-research/global-e-commerce-impact-logistics-real-estate
UPS Contacts:
Glenn Zaccara, UPS
404-828-4663
gzaccara@ups.com
Rebecca Harbin, MSL
404-870-6825
rebecca.harbin@mslgroup.com
Sealed Air Contacts:
Jennifer Grabenstetter, Sealed Air
704-560-7758
jennifer.grabenstetter@sealedair.com
Mark Savage, Weber Shandwick
212-445-8316
msavage@webershandwick.com
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