På(fyll) in the future
‘It's always been very important for us to think modular and scalable. In other words, building a system that we can start on a small scale, but which has the potential to scale up to a solid industrial level.’
These words belong to Bård Bringsrud Svensen, COO and one of the På(fyll)’s founders. ‘It's clear that the team has been looking ahead right from the start.’
‘From the very first testing of the service, we've had every process in the value chain established, but in a smaller version of the solution. We have always had full tracking of containers, easy web-based ordering, home delivery, washing and filling of containers. These processes have been further developed and become more comprehensive as we have scaled our service up to the launch in September last year,’ he says.
Bård goes on to say that På(fyll) now has a solid set-up that handles the needs of the service well, but that they are still working continuously on improvements and preparations for further scaling.
Possible product formats
‘We started early on to look at the products in the service as formats and not categories, and we carefully considered whether we should start with liquids, rather than dry goods, such as powders, capsules or other products,’ he explains.
‘It was natural for us to start with liquids, even though it's a challenging format to transport, as there are a lot of high-consumption products around the house - such as hand soap, shower gel and laundry detergent. Now that we've solved this format, and can ship these products safely to customers without much risk of leakage or loss of product quality, it will be easier for us to look at other formats when it becomes relevant.’
Focusing on ‘non-food’
He says that they have often received input from customers on other everyday products that are widely used in the household, and which they would like to have delivered in the same way, as a smarter solution than disposable packaging. These include coffee beans, lentils, nuts, pasta, rice and the like.
The På(fyll) system can clearly handle such product groups, but as these are foodstuffs, it will place far stricter requirements on the packaging and its handling. Therefore, this would mean that such an addition to the product range would require separate handling in the value chain. ‘It's by no means impossible, but it will require a certain amount of scaling and volume to make sense,’ he says.
He adds that they hope this will be possible in the future as more and more people discover the service and want to let it take care of the household's most commonly used everyday products.
A system for the next 50 years
På(fyll) is a service that aims to replace as much disposable packaging as possible. It has therefore been important to define the everyday products that most people use every day and offer these as a refill service delivered directly to the household.
‘All our insights and customer dialogues have shown that there is great potential in liquid products for cleaning and personal care. These are often used by the entire household and often several times a day. So it makes no sense whatsoever that these products should only be offered in disposable packaging for purchase in grocery stores. It’s neither simple nor particularly sustainable,’ he says.
Bård and the team at På(fyll) believe that the solution of the future needs to be smarter and more resource-efficient than that, and that they have the potential to be.
‘Our service makes it easier and tidier for the customer, who also doesn't have to worry about running out of the products they need, while at the same time we have full control of the containers we send around in the service. In this way, we can be very resource-efficient in our service, and our customers will have a simpler and less plastic-intensive everyday life,’ concludes Bård Bringsrud Svensen of På(fyll).
