Since 2007 Manufacturers and Retailers have been trying to come to agreement on unification and pooling of returnable transport items within ECR Baltic (Efficient Consumer Response Initiative in the Baltic States) framework. The current economic situation simply forces us to maintain and develop our supply chain in a sustainable and cost effective way.

Thus according to September – December 2011 RTI (Returnable Transport Items) Initiative meetings in Riga and Vilnius with participation of major retailers (Maxima, Rimi, Palink and Prisma) and dairy/meat manufacturers (Valio, Rakvere, Valmieras Piens, Rīgas piena kombināts, Rīgas piensaimnieks, Pieno Zvaigzdes, Zemaitijos Pienas) it was decided to start unification with dairy produce categories by implementing 3 crates set for standardization of dairy produce followed by crates set for meat, bakery, fruits and vegetables. As a second step towards unification is to agree on dimensions of proposed “Baltic Standard for Returnable Transport Items” followed by examining business models and tendering potential solution providers for specific crates solutions, pool and RTI management services.

IMPORTANT: If you are dairy / near dairy manufacturer/supplier, please carefully examine the attached letter with table of proposed dimensions of the “Baltic Standard for Returnable Transport Items” (Dairy produce 3 crates set). On behalf of ECR Baltic RTI unification initiative members we would like to ask you to give us a written answer if proposed standard covers your product range by 1st of February?

RTI past events:

Meeting at Riga Food 2011 | Presentations Pallets/RTI | Pallets working group

Poll for the RTI & Pallets meeting-seminar in April at doodle.com

Following GS1 eCom seminar earlier in 2011 with GS1 Sweden explaining the role of quality master data for electronic business processes (EDI) and another solution provider Edisoft during ECR Baltic forum presented their solution whereas emphasis was on buyer and category management needs, today we have invited representative of Saphety  the developers of Validoo, GS1 Sweden GDSN certified data pool.

The importance of quality product master data increases with the use of electronic business processes and more sophisticated ERP systems. It is equally important on a supply and demand side for categorizing and managing assortments, space planning, etc. – it is one of the key enabler to almost all ECR processes between retailers and their suppliers.

Learn more (for ECR Baltic EDI working group members!):

Invitation_to_GS1_GDSN_MasterData_Management_and_ECR_EDI_working_group_meeting.pdf

Top speakers from many of the biggest names on the European consumer goods scene are set to take part in this year's ECR Europe Conference & Marketplace.

Retailing giants such as Ahold, Tesco, Sainsbury and Casino will be joined on the platform by leading manufacturers including Nestlé, Unilever, Henkel and L'Oréal.

They will examine three key issues:

• The value of collaboration in a time of crisis
• How to grow - sustainably
• Smart thinking in the digital age

Vital subjects, powerful speakers... make a date with us when we meet to consider ECR: The next generation in Brussels on 9-10 May. To find out more and book your place, go to: http://conference.ecrnet.org/

Meantime, all of us at ECR Europe wish you a Happy New Year and a successful 2012. See you in May!

Following ECR Europe and GS1 Europe joint ECR Europe Business Information Committee (BIC) initiative in Data Sharing subgroup, we would like to encourage you to fill in the „Data Sharing Maturity Questionnaire” which you can find here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ECR-Data-Sharing by January 20, 2012

POS data sharing is also one of the highest next priority projects in ECR Baltic.  

Leran more: http://www.ecr-baltic.org/en/working-groups/pos-data-sharing/