Geography might not be destiny, but during the first three decades of operation, packaging for products identified with Wisconsin determined Tosca's business fortunes. Tosca Limited, Green Bay, WI, was founded in 1958 to recondition 55 gallon cheese barrels. These returnable containers were used in the closed loop delivery of bulk natural cheese from manufacturing plants to cheese processing locations. When this packaging method was replaced by the superior 640 cheese container, Tosca was prepared to provide the rigorous sorting, cleaning, and refurbishing services required to assure food safety, and container functionality. The demands of servicing this fleet were the genesis of Tosca's Custom Solutions program. The Tosca 640 Team designed and engineered proprietary technologies to standardize quality results, and reduce costs.
In the early 1960's, Tosca diversified its service offerings to include another specialized market, the beverage industry. Beer kegs are the most capital-intensive returnable packaging utilized in beer distribution, and the nation's largest brewers standardized usage to the single valve, straight wall keg, investing in fleets of these mobile packaging assets. Tosca focused on providing an exclusive range of services to optimize fleet utilization, retain keg value, and reduce damaged keg replacement costs. Tosca once again developed groundbreaking technology for Keg Repair operations, and is today the third party 'partner of choice' for over 98% of the industry, continuing to maintain low costs, and assure quality.
The current owners acquired Tosca Limited in 1990; the company remains privately held. This dynamic new leadership built on the service experience and skills of existing operations Teams, endowing Tosca with a robust continuous improvement ethic, and recharged self-confidence. The company moved to a 200,000 square foot facility, and Tosca was soon positioned to enter a new reusable packaging arena, Returnable Container Management.
In 1994, Tosca purchased an existing fleet of 60,000 640 Cheese Containers from manufacturers and processors. The customer-driven concept was to create a national rental program. Tosca's professional management of this 640 container pool ended chronic availability issues, standardized low container costs, and maintained consistency in container quality throughout the industry. Tosca took the lead in the development of Industry Guidelines and GMPs, working with the regulators and industry trade groups for eventual approval as Industry Standards by USDA and WDATCP. Today, Tosca Limited owns a fleet of 325,000 640 Cheese Containers, available on a 'per use' rental basis, and provides reconditioning services for the 150,000 container fleet owned by a major customer. All reconditioning services are performed in four strategic locations; two are Tosca-owned, and two are subcontracted.
Primarily due to the use, and reuse of traditional bushel baskets, the Savoy Spinach Industry was struggling with serious packaging concerns when Tosca began to work with the industry in 1996. Sanitation and food safety issues were chronic problems that needed to be addressed. Tosca partnered with major growers and processors to map the supply chain, analyze the application, and to review the plastic container options for their closed loop system. When a container that would meet essential requirements wasn't available, a custom design was created. Today, a Tosca-owned rental pool of over 300,000 containers supplies 95% of the Savoy Spinach market, nationally. Handling 4 million shipments a year, the program has delivered cost savings to the industry of 35-37% since conversion to the Tosca pool. Located in two facilities, Tosca Teams inspect, wash, and maintain the containers, according to customer-defined quality standards, and regulatory compliance. At customer request, Tosca also supplies logistics services utilizing leading-edge software to increase pool efficiencies and significantly reduce transportation costs.
Starting in 1997, Tosca Limited took aim at the Retailer-driven Case-Ready Meat and Poultry market offering dedicated rental pools of custom-designed returnable containers; management informed by industry expertise; and a broad Suite of Services to address food safety/sanitation requirements, thus sharing customer risk. Tosca sought to meet the needs of all stakeholders in this 'per use' rental pool, and consensus was reached on a highly functional 'bail bar' container style. Leveraging operational cost efficiencies, Tosca is now able to offer a uniquely transparent price structure, allowing customers to know all costs involved, and to participate in price incentives when greater efficiencies are achieved. Today, the Tosca Case-Ready rental fleet of over 150,000 containers serves a rapidly expanding National program. Tosca is also preparing to introduce customized RPC rental solutions for additional loops across the Meat and Poultry supply chain.
In 2000, Tosca added another niche market to the company's portfolio. A major producer of frozen pizza, and valued Tosca customer, needed to enlarge the fleet of 4,400 Bulk Bins used to move and store work-in-process pizza crust. Tosca proposed to purchase the required 2,500 Bulk Bins, and to offer them on a 'per use' rental basis, complete with a Suite of Services. Today, along with managing the Bulk Bin rental pool, Tosca also manages inventory levels and JIT container flows for the entire fleet, including the customer-owned bins. Tosca has brought increased tactical flexibility to fleet logistics, and created a more agile decision environment, thus pulling costs out of the system. By helping an industry leader to realize the potential of their Bulk Bin packaging system, Tosca developed the expertise and custom services to add unique value for exclusive Bulk Bin, and RPC rental pools in the future.
The history of Tosca Limited provides continuity, and a solid structure of values as the company is transformed through growth. Tosca employs over 125 team members working in facilities across the United States. Currently, Tosca operates through six major locations: Green Bay, WI; Cincinnati, OH; Hazelton, PA; and Salt Lake City, UT; Newnan, GA; and Lakewood, WA. As Tosca's aggressive new business development projects mature into active rental pools, locations will be added to meet those demands.
