Supplier Spotlights: Upside, Hunt Brothers Pizza & NACS
Inline Plastics
Inline Plastics, a manufacturer of crystal clear food packaging containers, opened a new manufacturing plant located in Gladwin, Mich., at the former Cam Packaging facility.
This addition secures a Midwest production and distribution facility to complement Inline's existing facilities in Shelton, Conn., in the Northeast; McDonough, Ga., in the South; and Salt Lake City in the West.
"We are excited to announce the purchase of Cam Packaging's operation," said Tom Orkisz, chairman and CEO of Inline Plastics. "Its large bed thermoforming machines and talented workforce will provide Inline with an instant increase in capacity to fulfill customer and consumer demand for our food packaging that delivers quality, freshness and eye-catching merchandising."
Inline Plastics transformed the marketplace with its Safe-T-Fresh line, a tamper-resistant and tamper-evident product which utilizes their patented tear-strip technology, providing retailers and consumers with greater product protection, according to the company. It continues to design and manufacture packaging solutions that keep food products safe, fresh, and enhance shelf merchandising.
NACS
NACS received the 2022 Energy Star Award for Excellence in Energy Star Marketing from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Each year, the Energy Star program honors a group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through superior energy achievements. Its winners lead industries in the production, sale and adoption of energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, services and strategies.
"NACS is proud to play a leadership role in developing tools for convenience retailers to make a difference in the communities they serve, whether related to improving energy efficiency, offering healthy options, fighting human trafficking, enhancing food safety systems or reimagining the next generation of age-verification for age-restricted products. We look forward to continuing to work with Energy Star to provide retailers with tools that can enhance their operations," said NACS Vice President of Strategic Industry Initiatives Jeff Lenard.
NACS first partnered with EPA's Energy Star program in 2019 to create convenience store-specific resources designed to help the industry reduce energy use and costs. As part of this effort, NACS and Energy Star launched the NACS Energy Use Survey to capture convenience store data necessary for measuring store energy use and to create the convenience retail industry's first and only Energy Star Score. These benchmarking tools are slated to be released later in 2022.
"The 2022 Energy Star award-winning partners are demonstrating what it takes to build a more sustainable future," said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. "These organizations are showing once again that taking action in support of a clean energy economy can be good not only for the environment, but also for business and customers."
PayByCar Inc.
PayByCar, a mobile payments startup responsible for providing pay-by-text payments at gas stations across Massachusetts, completed a $4-million seed funding round.
This follows PayByCar's 2021 statewide launch of its exclusive in-vehicle payment platform that includes partnerships with the E-ZPass Group, the Massachusetts Department of Transportations, Global Partners LP, Star Systems International and others.
The funding will push PayByCar's next chapter in financing the expansion of its services across states, and industry verticals like parking, retail and other sectors.
PayByCar allows customers with toll transponders like E-ZPass or PayByCar windshield stickers to perform contactless payments on gas purchases at participating locations from their mobile device, without ever having to touch the pump screen or use cash, credit cards or mobile apps. Users pay by confirming a text message when they drive into a participating location, without having to open their wallet or touch the fuel dispenser keypad.
Zippin
Zippin, the leading provider of checkout-free technology, reached a key milestone of servicing more than 1 million shoppers in one its 50 Zippin-powered stores. The company calculates that it has saved consumers more than 83,000 hours to-date, estimating that frictionless retail reduces the average shopping trip by 10 minutes.
With a tap of a credit card to enter the store, shoppers pick what they need and exit, without waiting in line. Zippin uses multi-modal AI-powered technology to deliver the most accurate solution to its partners. Even in locations with high foot traffic, such as stadiums and venues that offer a complex selection of products, Zippin's AI software automatically tracks what items are selected by which person, and whether they are put back, or leave with the shopper.
"Retailers are under immense pressure to deliver fast, frictionless experiences for consumers, and this is especially true in high-traffic venues where time is limited," said Krishna Motukuri, CEO and co-founder of Zippin. "We recognize that speed can't come at the expense of accuracy. With each new store launch, Zippin's AI improves its ability to provide the best experience for both retailers and shoppers, who are fast coming to expect this level of convenience. That's why it's so important that we continue to scale, quickly."
As the desire for more and more frictionless experiences continues to grow, Zippin plans to scale rollout of its technology with key partners around the globe, improving the overall retail experience and establishing its position as the top checkout-free platform provider.