Internet Fusion Group (IFG) is a fast-expanding online retail business with a portfolio of niche brands specialiszng in life-style products and apparel products. Established in 2006, the business has quickly grown through acquisition, retaining the skills and knowledge unique to each enterprise, and realising economies of scale with a common marketing resource, finance team, and a shared 146,000 sq ft warehouse in Kettering.
The problem IFG had been facing was similar to that of most businesses manually packing at high volumes into fiberboard boxes. The process required multiple packing desks with numerous staff and a wide range of box sizes for packers to select from. However, as with most manual packing operations, the match was often far from exact and void-fillers were usually required to cushion the goods.
To this end, minimizing its environ- mental impact is a perennial focus for IFG. Like much of its customer base, the business shares a passion for creating a sustainable future, free from single-use plastics commonly used in packaging. Pursuing its dual quest for sustainability and productivity, the retailer has invested in a state-of-the-art automated packaging solution that would accelerate throughput and lessen their environmental impact.
Adam Hall, Head of Sustainability at IFG, found the CVP Impack Automated Packaging Solution, an inline auto-boxer that measures, constructs, tapes, weighs, and labels each order every seven seconds while creating a custom fit parcel using only one operator.
“We are very much front runners on sustainability and packaging,” says Adam Hall. “Across the group our packaging is now 91% plastic-free and next year that percentage figure will look even better. The first rule of sustainability is reduce… and when you reduce, you save money as well,” Hall says. “In terms of shipping volumes, our calculations indicate that the two machines will offer a reduction of 92 truck loads a year, due to the space savings of fit-to- size packaging.”
The CVP machines have given IFG the capacity to expand on the same footprint and cope with peak at optimal performance. “It’s not a complex machine to use so staff were quick to pick it up. But importantly, the backup and support from Packsize (formerly Sparck) is fast, we have no complaints whatsoever,” according to Hall.
Internet Fusion Group (United Kingdom) is a fast-expanding online retail business with a portfolio of niche brands specialising in life-style products across surf, skate, snow, equestrian, motor sport, as well as premium street and outdoor fashion. Sites that will be familiar to outdoor and sports enthusiasts include: Surfdome, Ride-Away and Fitness Footwear.
