Case Study: Taking the hassles out of shipping

E. Krieger Greenhouses in Boone, Iowa, was looking for a better way to ship its plants. The 11-acre greenhouse operation had been using rolling racks to ship to its garden center customers.

Krieger's location in the center of the country was an advantage for shipping product to surrounding states with highly-populated, urban markets. However, the company's location also proved to be a disadvantage in terms of finding an economical and efficient way to ship the product.

Co-owner and sales manager Andy Krieger said his retail customers didn't like dealing with shipping racks.

"Handling the racks was a headache for many of our customers," Krieger said. "Dealing with the racks was also a problem for us too. We had to work with our customers to collect the racks and ship them back. The availability and retrieval of the racks also limited our ability to ship further distances."

About five years ago the company began working on an alternative system for shipping its product.

"We started looking at using cardboard knowing that recycling was becoming a bigger issue," Krieger said.

The limitations caused by shipping racks led Krieger Greenhouses to design the GreenWay Plant Shipper. The 40- by 48-inch shipping system is made of water–repellent, 100-percent recyclable cardboard. The one-way shipper was designed for use with flats, packs and pots up to 2-gallon containers.

The shipper has standard shelf spacing of 6, 9 and 17 inches, but the shelves can be adjusted. Custom shelf heights are available to handle young plant starter plugs and liners. A retail-ready display shipper has also been developed.
 

Changing customer base
Prior to developing the shiper, Krieger Greenhouses delivered most of its product store direct. Now most product goes through distribution centers.

"The shipper has allowed us to change our business model," Krieger said. "Before everything went directly to the individual stores. The shipper enabled us to start using these stores' distribution centers. We deliver to the distribution centers based on the outgoing shipping schedules so that the product is usually going out to the stores within two hours of it arriving at the center. It's literally just-in-time inventory."

And now other growers can purchase the shipping racks through the GreenWay Plant Shipper website.

For more: E. Krieger Greenhouses Inc., (515) 386-2948; www.kriegergreenhouses.com; www.greenwayshipper.com.