John Kowarsky at the IFTF 2016 in Vijfhuizen, The Netherlands.
Crushed cartons results in revenue loss
Crushed cartons at the bottom of regular air pallets damages the flowers and results in consequent revenue loss. It is a common problem in the Kenyan flower industry and John Kowarsky, CEO of Cargolite, with Amnon Zamir, Cargolite' s R&D Manager, were determined to find a solution. John started to design a packaging concept and wanted to meet four principles; removing the load from the carton walls, reduce the carton weight, increase the pack rate and improve the stackability. After some years of designing, he was able to show the first Cargolite concept in 2015.
The Cargolite concept. Click here for more detailed information about the concept.
Poor handling in the supply chain
In 2016, Cargolite exhibited at the IFTEX in Nairobi, for the first time and this is where Kowarksy's and Lindley's paths crossed. Lindley, director of Mavuno BV and responsible for operations at Oserian, was looking for a solution to prevent the damage inflicted on the flowers caused by poor handling in the supply chain. Oserian had originally been introduced to this concept a year earlier by one of Oserian's other key clients, but since then, Kowarsky explained, more about the concept and how this concept could be the answer to his problem.
Implementation challenges - less "man handling" of the cartons
So, Chris and the Oserian team, consisting of Martin Kabaka and Richard van Tol, decided to start trialling the concept. Even though the Cargolite concept itself was very well thought through, they encountered some challenges when implementing it. "The concept remained the same, but a number of changes had to be made at farm level and at the airport from a logistic point of view", says Kowarsky. "Usually, the boxes were handled one by one at the farm and airport. Now, the boxes are all put on an air pallet at the farm. All in all, the procedure of making and packing the cartons had to change, and it now takes a bit more time at the farm."
Infrastructure at the JKIA cargo village
Also some adjustments were necessary at airport level. "Most of the cargolite cartons are being exported via Kuehne and Nagel and Panalpina. Panalpina works with a pit and was able to load full air pallets. For Kuehne and Nagel, however, it was not feasibly possible to load the full air pallets and they therefore invested in the necessary equipment, like a loading bridge."
In the picture, two air pallets, one with Cargolite and the second with regular cartons, are seen together upon their arrival to Europe.
Less weight, more protection for the flowers
After the adjustments were completed, the advantages of the concept became clear. Oserian is using the Cargolite concept for most of their auction products for 6 months now and are pleased with the results. Lindley: "Cargolite gives great protection to the flowers in that the boxes are supported by plastic clips which means the weight of the boxes themselves do not crush other boxes in transit. Because the pallet is made up at the farm and not handled again until unpacking, it also means we have far less damage to flowers caused by boxes being tipped, or thrown around, resulting in a much better quality of product arriving at the final customer."
Better quality, decrease in freight and packaging costs
Next to the increase in quality of the flowers, Lindley is also pleased with the decrease in freight and packaging costs. "With Cargolite we use less cardboard because the stability for the boxes is given by the plastic clips and not the cardboard. So, we are now shipping the product without Single Face Kraft (SFK) around the flowers, which has reduced pressure damages on flower heads and has also enable us to pack more flowers on a pallet. All in all, this means less air freight of cardboard, hence better volumetrics on freight costs, with a major and very significant positive affect on the environment!
Picture on the left: IPL shipment leaving K&N. Picture on the right: Same air pallet arriving at Stanstead airport.
Main users of concept
Today the major user of the concept are Oserian and IPL. IPL is using the cargolite carton concept since September 2016 and has now advised all the farms they work with, to move over to Cargolite as soon as possible. Guy Symondson from IPL: "After successful commercial trials carried out by Oserian, IPL is excited to be introducing the Cargolite Flower packaging concept to all the other Kenyan farms that supply IPL. Cargolite offers more efficient and safer handling of boxes that in time will improve the flower quality. Furthermore, the Cargolite packaging concept, reduces the cost of packaging materials and increases the Net to gross ratio, thereby reducing the cost of freight per stem."
And more farms are in the learning process of how to pack their product in Cargolite cartons. Amnon Zamir of Cargolite with Nick Mwaura and Fred Ouma from IPL are currently instructing 15-20 farms. Furthermore, Cargolite cartons are now finding their way to other countries, like Holland, the UK and South Africa. "Australia, Japan and China are next on the list", says Kowarsky.
Future goals
According to Kowarsky, Cargolite's goals are to reach out to all farms and to the customers of the Kenyan flower industry, and offer the new packaging concept so that their flowers, exported from Kenya, will enjoy the improvement in quality and savings on air freight, "We believe this process is possible, but must be done cautiously, in stages, in order to allow time for the infra structure to be planned and implemented."
Cargolite will exhibit their packaging concept at stand E1.06 at the IFTEX in Nairobi on June 7-9, 2017. Also Oserian will be present at the IFTEX and can be visited at stand nr. C1.07.
For more information
Cargolite
John Kowarsky
Email: johnk@nalto2012.com
www.cargo-lite.com
Oserian
Chris Lindley
Email: chris.lindley@mavuno.nl
www.oserian.com