The Challenge

As an enterprise sized retailer, this company already bought new corrugated at volume-driven rates that most competitors can't touch. They have longstanding relationships with traditional box suppliers who give them pricing power most reuse programs never get to compete against. The bar for a reused-box program wasn't "cheaper than a small buyer would pay", it was cheaper than an already-optimized enterprise supply chain.

The Relationship and Solution

Rebox qualified a reused box program for the retailer across 3/4 of its distribution centres, solidifying a long term partnership. Rebox's account team has made in-person visits to multiple distribution centers to meet facility teams directly, and coordinates directly with the retailer's procurement and sourcing organization on a running basis.

When a DC ramps staffing mid-month and needs extra loads with a few days' notice, or when a facility needs an expedited PO for a specific box size - we are close enough to be able to adapt to fill it. Rebox behaves like part of the retailer's own logistics operation, not an outside vendor.

This reliability brought value to the retailer that went well beyond the cost savings. They've come to treat the relationship as an extension of their own logistics operation, which frees them to spend less time addressing packaging supply and more time on everything else on their plate.

The Results

The program now runs at ~355,000 boxes/month on average. That is about ~4.26M boxes/year.

The once-used boxes that this retailer purchases are roughly 30% lower cost than new corrugated, creating meaningful cost savings of about $900,000 per year across all distribution centres.

Environmental Impact

Annual environmental savings across all DCs (~4.26M boxes):

• Trees saved: ~61,770
• Water saved: ~66,807,000 liters
• CO₂ saved: ~20,278 kg (~20.3 metric tons)
  ‍

To learn what a once-used box program could do for you and your business, Contact Us.

‍