EPS News Interview - Paul Appleby Paul Appleby is Purchasing Manager for Electrolux Cookers at Spennymore, Co Durham. Spennymoor will produce 283,000 cookers this year, 98% of which are for the UK market. He is also Commodity Manager for Electrolux Home Products that has 23 factories across the European continent producing cookers, refrigerators and washing machines. In his role of Purchasing Manager he has responsibility for all packaging buying at the Spennymoor site. Since January 2000 he has adopted a challenging new method of addressing Electrolux’s packaging requirements. His work has led the way for the other European Electrolux factories, many of which may follow his pioneering new approach. A few years ago all our products were packaged in cardboard. These days all Electrolux cookers are packaged in expanded polystyrene (EPS) and in my opinion it displays our products far better. The packaging and the fact that it makes the product look attractive is part of our sales proposition to retailers. The other vital aspect is the performance of course — the packaging must be convenient and protect against damage to the cookers. I like to think that our packaging helps us to win orders because retailers know it is safely packaged and less likely to be damaged Most importantly of all, our aim is to ensure that every Electrolux customer is completely satisfied with their Electrolux purchase when it is delivered to them.
I can't see any reason to change back to cardboard. We find EPS packaging very user-friendly, it is easy to assemble and to fit onto our goods and it is very lightweight which makes it easier to move around. How have you changed your approach to packaging Electrolux cookers? The change is in two phases. The first step was to send each one of our many different models of cooker to our packaging supplier Tuscarora to get the packaging tested. The test results showed there were many opportunities to improve the design. So we have commissioned new packaging designs and we have also modified our products so we have eliminated the weaknesses that were causing problems in transit. In the second phase we asked Tuscarora to investigate our entire supply chain — from us through the various retailers and to customers. They came back with some fascinating video footage that showed exactly how our cookers were being treated at all the various stages on their journey to customers. Using that information our existing packs were modified and improved. But for our new models of cookers we have asked for completely new packs that take into account all the information collected on those videos. How important is price in all of this? We have to have a cost-effective solution. With a limitless budget it would be possible to solve all our packaging problems but that is clearly not the case. We have to be able to look at the cost of the improvements in our packaging and compare it to the cost of returned goods. In this instance the increase in the cost of packaging could well be paid for ten times over by the decreased costs of damaged goods being returned to us. Do you recycle any of your EPS packaging? We have an arrangement with Tuscarora. Any packaging that gets damaged in the factory and cannot be used is taken back and recycled back into packaging. We are also in discussions at the moment about recycling packaging that our components are delivered in and that has not come from our packaging supplier. Tuscarora has offered to take this too, as long as it is separated from Tuscarora's own packaging. I think the technical details are still being finalised but we hope that this scheme will be up and running soon.
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EPS pakaging seminar calls for support for users of recycled material Developments in EPS – skinning EPS News Interview - Paul Appleby, Electrolux Cookers
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Why do you use expanded polystyrene packaging for Electrolux cookers? 
Would you go back to cardboard?
