RFID Sweetens Imperial's Shipping Process
Featuring Greig DeBow, VP of consumer sales and marketing, Imperial

Used with permission from RFID Journal, Inc.

Imperial Sugar is using RFID-enabled plastic pallets to track its shipments from the refinery to the store. The pallet tags are providing a more visible (and safer) supply chain, says Greig DeBow, Imperial's VP of consumer sales and marketing. The tags' unique ID numbers, and the data associated with each number, enable the company to know where the pallets have been in the past, and to ensure that the pallets have not been used to ship bacteria-laden products, such as raw meat, that could contaminate Imperial's products.

The RFID-enabled pallets were provided by Intelligent Global Pooling Systems (iGPS). Imperial has been using the pallets since Oct. 15, DeBow says, and is gradually introducing them into its pallet supply to replace the wood versions used at its two plants in Gramercy, La., and Savannah, Ga.