Duni Group is a market leader in attractive, sustainable, and convenient products for table setting and take-away. The Group markets and sells two brands, Duni and BioPak, which are represented in more than 40 markets. Duni Group has some 2,400 employees in 24 countries, headquarters in Malmö and production units in Sweden, Germany, Poland, New Zealand, and Thailand.
Duni Director of Procurement and Value Chain, Wilbert Baerwaldt discusses the important role of the procurement function in continuing to drive the sustainability agenda.
Wilbert, Director of Procurement and Value Chain. How is your role positioned within the group and what do your responsibilities cover?
As director procurement and value chain I have two main responsibilities within the group. Firstly, the role assumes responsibility for all procurement activity connected to our four European factories. This includes tissue, chemicals, packaging materials, equipment. Secondly, the role assures that we have the right amount of capacity available for our internal production of napkins and table covers. Sometimes this requires us to buy tissue in the market, and sometimes there is a need to sell excess production capacity into the market. As an individual I am deeply committed to improving my standing in the world. Together with many other people, I am concerned that if we do not develop a sustainable way of living, we will all face future ramifications. In my role as director procurement and value chain I am directly able to impact Duni’s effect on the environment and our customers. This is a humbling responsibility.
Duni is very conscious of its role as a key corporate citizen and adheres to strong principles in regard to the environmental footprint and legacy of its products. What role does the procurement function play in assisting the business towards it sustainability goals?
Procurement has a key role to play to meet the goals of our sustainability programs. Whether this is related to the use of green electricity in the shape of wind, water and solar electricity, the transition to Biofuel or the search for new sustainable packaging materials, the department is heavily involved in these activities. Typically, our marketing organization will develop ideas and products. Accordingly, procurement is going out to our networks to assess what options exist. Sometimes it works the other way around, where we make proposals to our marketing department.
The journey to becoming a more sustainable business that continues to show positive growth is not an easy one. What challenges have you faced as a procurement function so far on this journey and how have you been able to find workable solutions around any such issues?
Whilst we search for requested solutions, we are facing many challenges. Three types of challenges prevail. Firstly, a sustainable solution exists, but supply capacity is limited. We have several ongoing discussions where we do not have access to the total capacity that is required. Secondly, there is a need for certain product characteristics, but these articles do not yet exist. We then either need to start a development project with selected partners or we need to re-define our need. Thirdly, there are solutions in the market, but these require massive investments on our side. At this stage we are evaluating the use of paper as packaging material instead of Polypropylene. In this area there are solutions, but all of our machines require a rebuild. The costs associated with these investments cannot be recovered yet from our customers.
What do you foresee as the greatest pressures to becoming a fully sustainable procurement in the coming years?
There are thousands of organisations thinking about ways to develop a more sustainable world, with most ideas proving not to be sustainable against a backdrop of those that are. Within the procurement department we are currently running at everything as we do not know which idea will prove to be successful. This means there is a lot of pressure to find suppliers to develop discussions and ideas. At the same time, legislation is developing in parallel. Different countries define sustainability in different ways. The customers of Duni are global and as such we want to develop global product ranges. When legislation is developing in different directions, this poses other challenges for us as a company and for our procurement team specifically. So, apart from associated investments, access to available capacities and the development of the right article, we have thousands of ideas and legislations that are not developing in a synchronized manner. This will create a turbulent and challenging environment for the years to come.
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The desire to drive sustainability cannot just be an internal affair if a business is to succeed in its ambitions. Suppliers will inevitably play a significant role in the overall success. Do you work strategically with suppliers to drive innovation and sustainability? How important is supplier buy in to your overall philosophy?
Our partners in our network play a key role in our success! Without their commitment, knowledge, time, and ideas we would not be able to be successful in our market and bring GoodFoodMood to life! During the last quarter we signed different cooperation agreements in order to secure the development of new articles and applications. The strength of our group is that we are partly vertically integrated, and we are sitting on significant competence with respect to materials and colours. However, we also have a significant base of suppliers all over the world who support us with products and ideas in those areas where we are not so strong.