Int. J Sup. Chain. Mgt. Vol. 3, No. 2, June 2014 11 Sustainability in Food Retail Industry through Reverse Logistics Gowri Vijayan #1 , *Nitty Hirawaty Kamarulzaman #2 , Zainal Abidin Mohamed #3 , Amin Mahir Abdullah #4 # Department of Agribusiness and Information Systems, Faculty of Agriculture Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 1 gowrivijayan.niam09@gmail.com 3 zam@upm.edu.my 4 amahir@upm.edu.my *Corresponding author: 2 nitty@upm.edu.my Abstract- Global sustainability regulations and market restrictions prompted global industries to develop the backflow supply chain management system termed reverse logistics. Reverse logistics or retrogistics deals with returns and waste management of products along supply chains. The adoption of reverse logistics across the manufacturing industry has been studied in detail for its adaptability and feasibility. However, a gap could been seen in studies on reverse logistics adoption across the food retail industry. The delicate nature of food products and backward flow of packaging and food materials necessitate the establishment of a smooth reverse logistics system across the supply chain. Planning a successful reverse supply chain process for the food retail industry requires research on existing reverse practices and implementation across the different retail formats. This gap in literature on reverse logistics adoption across all retail formats in a food retail industry limits the rate of success of this aftermarket system. The situation of reverse logistics research in the Malaysian food retail industry is not different. Considering the importance given to green movement by the government of Malaysia, this gap in sustainability studies need to be further investigated. This study thereby aims to investigate the level of reverse logistics adoption by retailers in Malaysia. The results highlight the present scenario of reverse logistics processes of return and waste management, determinants to reverse logistics adoption, benefits obtained by retailers from reverse logistics, and barriers to adoption of reverse logistics. Keywords- reverse logistics, determinants, retail formats, sustainability, barriers, benefits 1. Introduction The food retail industry faces a lot of problems in its supply chain, starting with the perishability of food products. Stock forecasting, continuous food supply, quality management, returns management, and waste management are some of the other problems faced by food retailers worldwide. The need for fast movement of food products along the supply chain not only necessitates forward supply chain management, but also the development of a backward product flow management system. Reverse logistics or retrogistics is the answer to this problem. Reverse logistics deals with the returns and waste management of products along its backflow supply chain. Being a sustainable and green initiative, aiding in operations planning, and product traceability favours reverse logistics adoption by industries. It is also one of the widely studies sustainability logistics practices in the manufacturing and mechanical industries. The adoption of reverse logistics not only support operations sorting but also greening of the supply chain in accordance with global government sustainability regulations. Studies on reverse logistics adoption across the food retail industry are limited. This might be due to the complexity in tracing food products across the supply networks among other factors. The situation in the Malaysian reverse logistics industry is also not different. The Malaysian food retail industry is of split format with grocery stores (56%), convenience stores (1%), supermarkets, and hypermarkets (43%) [23]. It is also one of the fastest growing industries in Malaysia, as a result of globalization, increasing expendable income, and demands from population mix. The food retail industry is currently worth US$15 billion, with a forecast of 10% growth per annum for the next three to five years [20]. The split format of the industry might be preventing sustainability studies across the retail formats. With the Malaysian government’s current ______________________________________________________________ International Journal of Supply Chain Management IJSCM, ISSN: 2050-7399 (Online), 2051-3771 (Print) Copyright © ExcelingTech Pub, UK (http://excelingtech.co.uk/)