The Supplier Ingredient Reporting Work Group Engages with Retailers and Presents at UL User Group Summit

The Supplier Ingredient Reporting Work Group (SIR) joined close to 40 other brand owners and 30 retailers at the UL User Group Summit in Orlando, Florida from March 26th to March 27th to engage in collaborative discussions surrounding WERCSmart operational improvements, policy initiatives and the overall communication amongst the participating parties.

The Summit programming began with brand owner focused sessions which included topics such as overall WERCSmart enhancements, an increased focus on brand owner’s customer service experiences, and the overall WERCSmart’s tiered data consent structure.   SIR has been essential in providing operational improvement suggestions to the WERCSmart developers since its inception in 2008, with these items being some of the main points of emphasis in recent years. This brand owner centric session was highlighted by a presentation from SIR member, Mary Marrero of Procter and Gamble. During this presentation, Mary explained the challenges brand owners experience while interacting with the WERCSmart system to provide all stakeholder involved with the most accurate and transparent information appropriate. The presentation also suggested proposed changes to the system from a brand owner’s perspective, such as improvements for ease of use and efficiency and advanced notice for system changes and reporting capabilities. This direct line of communication perfectly situates SIR to assist the brand owner community, which entail, provides a better product to retailer writ large.

During the second day of the Summit, UL brought brand owners and retailers together in order to allow for clear and concise communication between the two communities on the challenges they each deal with while trying to provide the highest quality of products to the end-use customer. Once again, SIR provided detailed accounts of their activities within WERCSmart via a presentation by SIR Chair, Dee O’Reilly of L’Oreal. Dee provided a detailed account of SIR’s overall approach, the manner in which the group has assisted the WERCSmart team regarding system improvements, and lessons learned from these interactions. For example, during its participation, SIR has suggested 86 items of improvement. Of these items, through collaboration with the WERCSmart team, an implementation rate of 84% has been achieved.

Following presentations, attendees broke into round-table discussions, each of which included brand owners and retailers in order to discuss high priority issues and possible solutions that can be implemented. The topics of discussion included: ingredient disclosure and management, logistics and shipping, e-commerce and overall communication. This activity spurred lively and productive discussions, culminating in possible solutions that received support from both brand owners and retailers.

If you would like additional information regarding the SIR Work Group, please contact Zachariah Parkhill, Project Manager, at [email protected].