Case study · EPR Stand-Up
A national restaurant brand started EPR from zero. Four weeks later, leadership had six invoices mapped and reserved.
Fast-growing QSR chain · Franchise model · California, Oregon, Colorado
The situation
Without any EPR filing history, the brand lacked tonnage estimates and any financial reserves across the three active states. With California's program launching in 2027 without a published full program fee schedule to date, the team had a considerable blind spot. California's Early Program Fees, due in August 2026, also sit outside the routine EPR invoicing calendar, and the Plastic Pollution Mitigation Fee rolls into the January 2027 full program fee invoice. No accruals, reserves or payment calendar existed.
What we did
We started by walking the leadership team through how packaging EPR works: who bills, what drives the fee, and when each invoice lands. We then completed the 2024 and 2025 supply reports for California, Oregon, and Colorado within four weeks, well ahead of the May 31 deadline. Additionally, we forecasted California's 2027 fees at the covered material level to provide the finance team with defensible estimates tied to each SKU. Total exposure was quantified by state line item by year, with reserves set at the high end given California forecast uncertainty.
The outcome
Finance left the engagement with a six-invoice payment calendar, state-level reserve estimates, and a SKU-level fee model before the first invoice arrived.
Forecast EPR fees by invoice year, bars to scale
Source: The Swedesford Group engagement model. California 2027 at the high end of the published range.
The engagement