IPP new pooling partner for the GS1 Smart Box

The GS1 Smart-Box is the first standardized and serialized reusable transport box in the FMCG industry. The serialization of GS1 Smart-Boxes enables fully digital management of load carriers. All boxes are recorded using a barcode, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) or a data matrix. This ensures that the load carriers can be tracked and identified. This is the basic prerequisite for efficient data exchange between industry and trade. As a leading pooling service provider, IPP has been involved in the Smart Box project from the outset.

Ingo Schimmelpfennig (Managing Director Production & Logistics Procter & Gamble) confirms: "The Smart Box is our long-term solution for further reducing_{CO2 emissions} by significantly improving truck utilization and replacing increasingly expensive disposable cardboard packaging. We are working on using them throughout the entire supply chain in the future."

Many well-known companies have already recognized the benefits of the GS1 Smart Box. In addition to Procter & Gamble (with Gillette and soon other products), Beiersdorf, Colgate-Palmolive, Cosnova, Henkel, Kao, L'Oréal and, on the retail side, dm-drogerie markt, Rossmann, Budnikowski, Müller, Edeka, Postlogistics and dm Austria are currently participating in the boxes, which have been on the market since September 2021.

"We at dm decided to use the Smart Box to become more sustainable and, in particular, to reduce packaging material, increase productivity - as the handling effort with the Smart Boxes is significantly lower - and, last but not least, to be able to deliver the products to our dm stores more quickly. So far, we have already made good progress in all areas," says Christian Bodi, dm Managing Director responsible for logistics and for 300 dm stores in NRW.

"From our point of view, the GS1 Smart Box is here to stay. It is as sustainable as it is efficient. I can only advise anyone interested to take a closer look at it now, because the sooner you decide to use it, the more you will benefit, especially in the FMCG segment. In the long term, the cost savings will be very high," explains Stefan Herbergs, Managing Director of IPP GmbH.