Our guest on this week's episode is Jo Marini, CEO of Mothership Materials. Many companies have struggled with how to produce products that are well-made and also friendly to our environment. That is where a company like Mothership Materials comes in. This company takes agricultural waste and turns it into fibers and materials for manufacturing new products. Susan Lacefield of Supply Chain Xchange and DC Velocity talks to Jo Marini, the founder and CEO of Mothership Materials, about her transformative company. Here is their conversation.

Senior Editor Victoria Kickham reports that business activity in logistics slowed in July, driven by a variety of factors, according to the latest Logistics Managers’ Index report. The index fell to 68.9; that’s down from June’s reading of 71.1, which was the LMI’s fastest rate of expansion in about four years. The cooling we saw in July reflects an inventory pullback among retailers who had stocked up in May and June due to tariff uncertainty and the impending expiration of temporary tariffs at the end of the month. Essentially, companies built up inventory earlier in the cycle to prepare for the coming holiday peak season.

Senior News Editor Ben Ames was on the road this week for the grand opening of Toyota Material Handling North America’s new forklift manufacturing facility. This new factory is in Columbus, Indiana and is almost 300,000 square feet in size. Following a ramp up through September, the new factory will produce 24 lift trucks per day. It will manufacture only electric powered forklifts, specifically a standup counterbalanced forklift. 

Articles and resources mentioned in this episode:

• Mothership Materials
• LMI Report: The logistics industry growth slowed in July
• Toyota opens new forklift plant in Indiana
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• Visit Supply Chain Xchange
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