Resin pellets achieve 'closed loop'

Olivet meeting Wal-Mart’s sustainability, ‘USA’ goals

NWA Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK - 4/24/15 - Terry Mulddon (right to left), chief executive officer of Olivet International, Inc., describes the operation of ECOTECH consumer products, to Stephanie Reibling, vice president for Home Management for Wal-Mart, and Cindi Marsiglio, vice president of United States Manufacturing for Wal-Mart, during a tour Friday April 24, 2015 at the ECOTECH facility in Springdale.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/DAVID GOTTSCHALK - 4/24/15 - Terry Mulddon (right to left), chief executive officer of Olivet International, Inc., describes the operation of ECOTECH consumer products, to Stephanie Reibling, vice president for Home Management for Wal-Mart, and Cindi Marsiglio, vice president of United States Manufacturing for Wal-Mart, during a tour Friday April 24, 2015 at the ECOTECH facility in Springdale.

A focus on sustainability and a commitment to manufacturing products in the U.S. are among the missions Wal-Mart Stores Inc. asks its suppliers to pursue.

Olivet International, which operates a supplier office in Bentonville and a newly opened plant in Springdale, offers an example of how to blend those two challenging missions. The 35-year-old company is taking pre- and post-consumer waste from Wal-Mart and transforming it into resin pellets that are later used to manufacturer products sold by the retailer.

Currently, the pellets produced in Springdale at Ecotech Consumer Products, a subsidiary of Olivet, are shipped to plants in California and Oklahoma. The end result are pet bowls and coolers. Olivet is a supplier of luggage, coolers, backpacks, duffel bags, camping goods, pet accessories, handbags, diaper bags and storage containers.

"Our whole vision was thinking how cool it would be to see a Wal-Mart truck at one dock door unloading garbage and another at a dock door leaving with product," Olivet CEO Terry Muldoon said. "It's a sustainability and made-in-the-USA story."

Ecotech isn't yet producing finished products in Springdale but began taking in waste from Wal-Mart in November, and in March the company started processing it into raw material for other products. Each week the plant receives about nine semitrailer loads of waste, including flower pots, cake frosting buckets and other items from the company's return centers.

Wal-Mart return centers in Waco, Texas; Bentonville; and Las Vegas currently supply material to the Springdale facility. Much of the material would be sent to a landfill if it didn't have a home in Springdale. Eventually the plan is begin taking on waste from other locations in Wal-Mart's return center network and accommodate 18-20 trucks per week.

Olivet recently opened the Ecotech facility for a tour and invited representatives from Wal-Mart's buying, sustainability and manufacturing teams. Among those on tour was Cindi Marsiglio, a Wal-Mart vice president who is overseeing an initiative to source more domestically manufactured products for stores in the U.S.

Wal-Mart committed in 2013 to purchasing $250 billion in U.S.-made products by 2023. Part of the process included targeting current suppliers who were willing to return to domestic manufacturing, something Olivet is doing with some of its product lines.

"This is a great example of a supplier maximizing its opportunities," Marsiglio said. "They're a longtime supplier that has found business advantages to leveraging the scale Wal-Mart brings and our commitments to sustainability and U.S. manufacturing. They're finding new products. They're re-shoring. They've done something really exciting here with the closed loop. They're taking products we sell today and turn them into products we'll sell tomorrow. It's exciting."

Olivet is being heralded by Wal-Mart as an example of what suppliers can do as part of its "Made in the USA" initiative. Wal-Mart is hosting its U.S. Manufacturing Summit and supplier Open Call events July 7-8 in Bentonville. Company representatives preparing for the event were part of the recent tour.

Since Ecotech began taking in waste late last year, it has created 22 jobs. Another 13 jobs could be added by the end of 2015, and the company has added about 100 nationwide this year.

Those estimates are conservative, according to Ecotech President and Olivet Vice President Jeanelle Harris, who said the company doesn't want to "overpromise." During a presentation for Marsiglio and others from Wal-Mart, Harris said the company expects to "blow away" its job estimates for the year.

Olivet employs about 300 in the U.S. and about 100 internationally, excluding factory workers.

"Job creation, that's what this is about," Marsiglio said. "And you'll notice that the plant employs anything from a chemist to a machinist. What I can appreciate is the potential of this facility to grow. They're planning for today and building for tomorrow."

Ecotech was the latest stop in a cross-country tour for Marsiglio, who is visiting with suppliers who are focusing on the domestic manufacturing initiative. Recent stops included plants that manufacture bicycles, socks, candles, towels, plastic cutlery and furniture. These visits are part of the retailer's commitment to better learn how it can help suppliers return manufacturing to the U.S. and diversify their current production lines.

Olivet and Ecotech provide an illustration of how challenging and time-consuming re-shoring, or relocating work from overseas, can be. The machinery used in the process of turning waste into reusable material was shipped to Taiwan for test runs before being shipped back and set up in Springdale.

Now that the plant is operational, Ecotech also is looking to supply pellets created locally to other manufacturers who service Wal-Mart. Olivet officials said they could sell the materials on the open market, but the goal is taking the Wal-Mart waste and turning it into Wal-Mart products.

"We're committed to making sure all resin we take in goes back to Wal-Mart shelf," Harris said. "It's a closed-loop story. And whether we're the vendor putting it back on the shelf or not, we're committed to this becoming a product that winds up on Wal-Mart shelves."

Business on 04/28/2015

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