Hamburger Helper Uses Its Noodle to Reduce Box

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of Bentonville released an updated tally of the products and vendors who met its Feb. 1 deadline to enter packaging information into its scorecard, and the numbers were worthy of a follow-up to our Jan. 28 cover story.

As of Jan. 30, Wal-Mart reported 6,371 vendors had entered packaging information for more than 97,000 products sold in Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Tara Raddohl said compliance was voluntary, but buyers are now using the data to inform their purchasing decisions.

“If a supplier doesn’t enter their information into the scorecard, our buyers will not have their data to refer to when making purchasing decisions, and therefore will be unable to reward the suppliers who are making sustainable changes to their packaging,” Raddohl said.

While the big packaging news in the last year was the double and triple reductions from now-concentrated laundry detergent required by Wal-Mart, Raddohl provided another impressive example.

Hamburger Helper found that by straightening its noodles “just a tad,” the product would lay flatter in the box and less space would be filled with air.

Raddohl said this simple measure allowed Hamburger Helper to reduce the sizes of its boxes and save nearly 900,000 pounds of paper fiber each year.

The move reduces Hamburger Helper’s greenhouse gas emissions by 11 percent, the equivalent of taking 500 trucks off the road, and allows the company to stock 20 percent more product on shelves.

“That’s good for their business and good for the environment, too,” Raddohl said. “This frame of thinking will drive innovation in the packaging world and reduce waste throughout the supply chain.”

While buyers look for the next CFL bulb – of which Wal-Mart has already sold 100 million – the Bentonville retailer has even added sustainability to employee reviews.

“This year, our associates will have an additional component on their annual reviews which will evaluate their contributions to help move our company’s sustainability goals forward,” she said. “We feel that this will help drive our company and the actions of our associates in an even better direction.”

Transplace Moves Seminar to Rogers

Transplace of Rogers, a non-asset based third-party logistics provider, is moving its sixth annual Shipper Symposium from Frisco, Texas, to the John Q. Hammons Center.

The symposium, scheduled for April 22-24, will feature a one-day presentation by the Supply Chain Management Research Center, a unit of the Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.

The UA’s April 23 presentation will be “Sourcing and New Market Development in the Global Supply Chain” and will feature speakers Mark Holloway and Jeff Langenfeld. Holloway is vice president of customer service and logistical excellence for Unilever and Langenfeld is VP of merchandise replenishment for Wal-Mart.

Registration information can be found on the Transplace Web site.