Floris is designed to replace single-use plastic flower buckets while giving floral suppliers and retailers access to IFCO’s established pooling, washing and asset-management network.
IFCO is extending its reusable packaging model into the North American floral supply chain with the launch of Floris, a pooled reusable bucket designed to transport and display cut flowers and bouquets. The new IFCO Floral Bucket targets a packaging format that has largely remained outside the shift toward reusable transport packaging. Plastic flower buckets are widely used to move bouquets through distribution and into retail stores, but many are discarded after a relatively short service life.
With Floris, IFCO is applying the same basic pooling approach it has long used for reusable produce and fresh food packaging. Buckets are supplied through the company’s SmartCycle pooling system, circulated between floral suppliers and retailers, returned after use, professionally washed and inspected, and then prepared for another trip. For floral companies and retailers, that means reuse without having to purchase, track, wash and maintain a proprietary fleet of buckets.
Designed to fit existing floral operations
One of the more important elements of the Floris launch is IFCO’s emphasis on compatibility with existing floral supply chains. The company says the bucket is intended as a direct replacement for commonly used 8-liter and 10-liter disposable buckets, reducing the operational changes required to move from single-use packaging to a reusable system.
Floris is designed to serve two roles. The same bucket used to transport flowers can continue with the product onto the retail floor for merchandising. Rigid sides and an octagonal base are intended to improve stability during handling, while a wavelike rim provides a more finished appearance when bouquets are displayed in stores.
That transport-to-display approach follows a principle already familiar in reusable packaging. Eliminating unnecessary product transfers can simplify handling while reducing the amount of secondary packaging or equipment required at different stages of the supply chain.
“It’s a simple change with the potential to make a meaningful difference at scale,” said Mike Pooley, chief executive officer of IFCO. Pooley said the company sees floral as another opportunity to apply the reusable model it has developed across fresh grocery supply chains.
Pooling addresses more than the bucket itself
The significance of Floris goes beyond replacing a disposable plastic container with a more durable one. As with other reusable transport packaging systems, the ability to collect, reposition, wash and recirculate the asset is central to making reuse practical.
IFCO’s SmartCycle system manages those activities on behalf of users. Empty buckets move back through the pooling network rather than remaining the responsibility of individual floral suppliers or stores. After collection, they are cleaned, inspected and prepared for another cycle.
That service component can be particularly important in applications where packaging moves between numerous growers, suppliers, distribution facilities and retail locations. Reusable packaging can create additional value through repeated use, but it also introduces the need to manage returns, cleaning, inventory balances and asset losses.
Floris has therefore been designed as a digitally enabled asset. IFCO says its digital capabilities can support tracking and shrink management, helping operators maintain greater visibility of buckets as they circulate through the system.
The bucket has also been developed with automation in mind. Its exterior is designed to move over conveyor systems, an increasingly important consideration as grocery and distribution operations introduce more automated material handling.
Extending reuse into a largely disposable application
Reusable packaging has become well established in parts of the fresh food supply chain, particularly for produce, meat, bakery and other grocery categories. Floral logistics presents many of the same conditions that can favor reuse: recurring shipments, relatively standardized distribution channels, regular delivery to retail locations and packaging that can be recovered through an established reverse logistics network.
The challenge has traditionally been closing that loop economically. IFCO’s approach is to place the floral bucket within an existing pooling infrastructure rather than asking retailers or suppliers to build a return system themselves. For companies already participating in reusable packaging programs, the floral bucket could potentially become another circulating asset moving through familiar distribution and recovery channels.
Systems typically become more complex as they mature, and this is the case here for reusable packaging systems. The launch moves reusables beyond the traditional crate, pallet and bulk container applications that first established pooling at scale. Increasingly, reusable systems are being developed around more specialized packaging formats where a disposable item performs a relatively simple but frequently repeated logistics function.
Depending upon the supply chain, flower buckets can fit that description particularly well. They must protect and contain the product during transport, remain stable during handling and often continue to serve a merchandising function once flowers reach the store. Floris brings those functions together in an asset specifically designed to make the return trip and start the process again.
IFCO says floral providers and retailers in North America are beginning to introduce the new buckets into their operations. For the company, the expansion represents both a new packaging category and a further test of how broadly the established pooling model can be applied across retail supply chains.
Rick LeBlanc, EMBA, is the founder and editor of Reusable Packaging News (subscribe to the free newsletter) and editor of Western Pallet Magazine. A supply chain journalist with more than 30 years of experience, he specializes in pallets, reusable packaging, material handling and related operations. Rick is co-author of Pallets: A North American Perspective and Pallets & Progress: A Collected History of Pallets and Palletized Handling 1922–1945. He is also an advisory board member of the Virginia Tech Center for Packaging and Unit Load Design. Read Rick’s full bio.