GS1 US Retail Grocery Initiative will address industry challenges

The new Retail Grocery Initiative facilitated by GS1 US aims to address industry challenges with broad adoption and implementation of GS1 standards, the most widely used supply chain standards in the world.
Uniting suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, solution providers, and industry associations, the GS1 US Retail Grocery Initiative gathered industry stakeholders for its inaugural meeting during the GS1 Connect 2014 conference recently.
The GS1 US Retail Grocery Initiative serves to facilitate collaboration across industry to address high-priority supply chain and regulatory challenges impacting the entire industry. During the initial meeting, more than 150 industry stakeholders gathered and identified high-priority topics impacting their businesses that could be addressed by the initiative. These included alignment on product information for business and consumer use, standardized usage of images, and adherence to regulations from the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Industry stakeholders will continue to complete initiative goals and objectives in the coming months.
“The GS1 US Retail Grocery Initiative helps industry address the issues impacting their businesses now and for many years ahead,” said Angela Fernandez, vice-president of retail grocery and foodservice, GS1 US. “Through a formal initiative, members have the opportunity to provide their thought leadership and expertise to shape the future of the industry and to address a few critical industry issues to drive solutions faster, better, and more efficiently, enabling broad industry adoption.”
Collaboration has taken center stage as companies realize that profitable growth can result by leveraging the combined strength of their trading partner network. A study by the Boston Consulting Group and the Grocery Manufacturers Association says business-to-business collaboration is a major source of untapped value in the food industry, worth up to $21 billion industrywide. The GS1 US Retail Grocery Initiative will identify emerging industry challenges and facilitate collaboration to develop best practices for using GS1 standards to address key issues and drive supply chain efficiencies.
GS1 standards have been used by the retail grocery industry for more than 40 years. In 1973, the grocery industry came together to agree on one way of doing business by adopting the UPC barcode. GS1 US has been working with industry since then to address business process needs and drive supply chain efficiencies. The GS1 US Retail Grocery Initiative will build on 40 years of industry progress and align industry to address current and future challenges.
To learn more about the GS1 US Retail Grocery Initiative and to join, go to www.gs1us.org/retailgrocery. For more information about GS1 US, access www.gs1us.org.