Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery was recently able to talk to Gary Nowacki, CEO, TraceGains, as well as Erin Tarr, technical manager of supply, T. Marzetti, about supply chain shortages and how to best handle them. TraceGains recently launched TraceGains Gather, a solution that enables food and beverage brands to capitalize on speed and agility and remain competitive amid shifting market conditions and fluctuating supply. T. Marzetti was able to use Gather to help navigate ingredient shortages.

Liz Parker: How did the idea for TraceGains Gather come about?

Gary Nowacki: It was less of an idea we generated, and more so a recognition of what was right in front of us. We’d already built the world’s only Networked Ingredients Marketplace and had spent years connecting buyers and sellers. Helping stakeholders throughout the supply chain work better together with Gather was just a natural extension of that.

LP: How does Gather help food and beverage CPGs secure their supply chain against ongoing disruptions like transportation delays, labor shortages, and rising material costs?

GN: TraceGains Gather is an open marketplace where manufacturers, suppliers, and everyone in between can exchange information freely. Think of it as the supply chain’s version of LinkedIn. We empower users to leverage a massive network of people and data to make collaboration quick and painless.
  

LP: How can Gather help CPGs source alternate suppliers and maintain a steady supply of ingredients?

GN: TraceGains Gather transforms both procurement and R&D. The network eliminates most of the obstacles to effective collaboration by providing immediate access to solutions that empower brands to overcome today’s supply chain challenges. Gather can cut sourcing time from months to weeks without adding staff or driving up expenses. Gather also provides the quickest way for teams to communicate with their colleagues in R&D and procurement.

4. How did Gather help navigate ingredient shortages for T. Marzetti?

Erin Tarr: The war in Ukraine caused problems with high oleic oils, like vital wheat gluten, and at T. Marzetti, this put us in a tough position with increased labor and transportation costs. TraceGains allowed us to quickly pivot to new suppliers who already met our requirements so we could focus on keeping our business moving. Now, we use TraceGains Gather for our strategic sourcing and it helps us be more agile since we know the ingredients and suppliers we identify through the platform come highly vetted. Sourcing and approving used to take us up to 60 days, but now with TraceGains, we’ve reduced that time by over half.