Save on Seafood: Medium-sized, value-added seafood processor. Provides portion-packed, fresh fish fillets to national restaurant chains, foodservice and grocery stores.

Industry:
Seafood Processing

Geography:
Located: St. Petersburg, Florida
Services: Eastern United States

Benefits from AirLiner:

• • Warehouse space savings
• • Colder product upon arrival
• • Reduced Damage Claims
• • Easy Disposal

"AirLiner keeps our fillets colder our customers have told us. We have experienced incredible space savings by using AirLiner. It has saved us a bunch of money! I really like the 'green' benefits of AirLiner. Any step I can take to reduce my impact on the landfills is a bonus!"
Gib Migliano
Owner, Save On Seafood

In an average week, Save On Seafood of St. Petersburg, FL ships 100,000 lbs. of fresh, portioned fish to grocery stores, foodservice and national restaurant chains. The company purchases a wide variety of fish from regional fisherman and also receives fresh deliveries of whole fish from Costa Rica, Alaska and Chile. Once in house, Save On processes the fish into 6, 8 & 10-ounce portions, packs in Modified Atmosphere Packaging trays and then ships overnight to customers throughout the Eastern United States. One of the first companies to react to an FDA request for measurable quality control, Save On includes Time-Temperature Indicators in each tray.

Running Out of Room Save On is located on a quiet side street in a lush, semi-residential neighborhood. They had outgrown their location years ago; and the sheer volume of foam inventory imposed a burden on their facility. Save On's fresh fish fillets were previously shipped in 5 different sizes of molded expanded polystyrene (eps) foam containers, requiring them to stock each size box plus its corresponding lid. "We were limited on space," explains Gib Migliano, Owner. "When we packed with styrofoam, we had to receive shipments of foam everyday -- shipments that had to be staged, unloaded, and then transferred to the production lines. That is a complete process by itself! Plus, I had to order a lot more foam than I anticipated using just to get a good price."

To make matters worse, the foam's lackluster performance offered little benefit to Save On's clients. Save On became accustomed to daily calls from customers complaining that shipments had arrived warm, in broken or cracked foam containers. For many years, Save On had accepted thousands of dollars in damage claims simply as a cost of doing business. As their business grew, Save On Seafood become exceedingly frustrated with the hassles of using foam for shipping warehouse space was running out, product was getting damaged and customers were upset.

Save On Recognizes AirLiner as A Solution to Their Needs.
Through a previous professional relationship with Tom Malone, President of Cold Pack System, Save On Seafood was aware of the development of AirLiner insulated packaging. Immediately recognizing the technological advancements of the product and the obvious benefits, Save On quickly volunteered to be the first beta-test site of AirLiner.

After a very successful test period, Save On replaced all of their eps molded foam shipping containers with AirLiner in December of 2000. Gib Migliano finds the space saving benefits of AirLiner at the top of his list. "We have experienced incredible space savings by using AirLiner exclusively. We can put 1,500 AirLiners on one pallet, versus 15 pallets of styrofoam" reports Gib. Using AirLiner instantly made an extra 30% of crucial dockside space available or nearly 4,000 square feet.

With AirLiner, Save On was able to streamline their operation by converting all of their customers to one size shipper. Not only has inventory control been simplified, but they are also saving money by doing it! "In our business you ship overnight and pay significant freight charges. I have been able to change all of my customers over to one-size shipping container; and, I do not need to inventory those other sizes. Plus, using AirLiner, your gross weight is significantly reduced. FedEx and UPS charge on the gross weight, and these bags are virtually weightless. It has saved us a bunch of money," adds Migliano.

Customers Report Colder, Fresher Product Most importantly, Save On's customers love the new packaging! Almost immediately, AirLiner eliminated damage claims and complaints! Gib explained the reasons, "The most important benefit of AirLiner is the higher R-factor. AirLiner keeps our fillets colder -- our customers have told us! Look, if you are shipping overnight with AirLiner, your instances of damaged, spoiled goods will be minor." Over 100, 000 AirLiner insulated shipments have been processed at Save On so far. Migliano is pleased that his customers are reporting fresher fish, arriving colder. Many have also seen a dramatic decrease in the bulk of their trash. "I really like the green benefits of AirLiner," boasts Migliano. "There is no crushing-up messy, used foam boxes; and then, trying to figure a way to dispose of them. Lets face it; foam is just hard to get rid of. Any step I can take to reduce my impact on the landfills is a bonus!"