Helen of Troy’s Pegasus Restructure Marrying Operational Efficiencies With Personalization
Helen of Troy’s Project Pegasus global restructuring initiative is starting to bear fruit, according to company leaders, as the consumer goods company doubles down on identifying operational efficiencies.
The initiative, first shared last year and implemented for fiscal 2023, includes global operations teams implementing new standardized tools and “fully owning our supply chain end-to-end,” said CEO Julien Mininberg in an earnings call.
Pegasus is expected to generate savings of approximately $20 million in fiscal 2024 and has resulted in the creation of a North American Regional Market Organization, with plans for new distribution, joint business plans with key retail partners, and shopper data.
The design-to-value (DTV) component, meanwhile, marries consumer insights, competitive analysis, and supplier insights for new technologies and manufacturing costs to improve product design. As part of this, the company is exploring additional platforming to standardize select components and raw materials across different products, as well as lower-cost design strategies.
Packaging Personalization
Headquartered in El Paso TX, Helen of Troy includes such brands as OXO, Hydro Flask, Osprey, Vicks, Braun, and Honeywell in its portfolio. Pegasus resulted in the creation of two business segments — home and outdoor, and beauty and wellness — and its search for efficiencies has extended into its packaging systems.
The company is scaling its automatic carton packaging system, which creates custom shipping boxes from continuous feed corrugated cardboard, resulting in shipping cartons “perfectly sized” for each order, according to COO Noel Geoffroy
“This real-time format change is managed automatically and directly from a database,” he noted. “The equipment offers high levels of flexibility, automation and speed of processing and can create one box every few seconds.”
Its new made-to-fit packaging bumpers for its Hydro Flask bottles also reduce the amount of packaging required and decrease customer transport volume queue by almost half for the bottles, according to the company.
As part of Helen of Troy's nearshoring efforts to decrease supplier reliance on China, the company also opened a new, LEED Silver-certified distribution center in Tennessee with advanced automation capabilities, providing the company with more capacity and capabilities for in-line customization and personalization for direct-to-consumer Hydro Flask orders.
