May/ June AICC BoxScore: Back and Better Together

A PUBLICATION OF AICC, THE INDEPENDENT PACKAGING ASSOCIATION

May/June 2021 Volume 25, No. 3

BACK AND BETTER

TOGETHER

The excitement surrounding the much-anticipated SuperCorrExpo 2021 is not to be understated

ALSO INSIDE E-commerce: Boxmakers’ Boon The Education Difference Member Profile: Master Packaging

TABLE OF CONTENTS May/June 2021 • Volume 25, No.3

COLUMNS

44 FEATURES

44

52

BOXMAKERS’ BOON Manufacturers were already taking advantage of e-commerce in recent years, but their adaptability amid a pandemic is setting them up for greater growth

56

THE EDUCATION DIFFERENCE Bettering your workforce starts with better education—and AICC has the resources and partnerships to help

CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

4

SCORING BOXES

8

LEGISLATIVE REPORT

12

MEMBERS MEETING

20

ASK RALPH

22

ASK TOM

24

SELLING TODAY

28

ANDRAGOGY

30

LEADERSHIP

62

THE ASSOCIATE ADVANTAGE

64

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

72

THE FINAL SCORE

DEPARTMENTS

BACK AND BETTER TOGETHER The excitement surrounding the muchanticipated SuperCorrExpo 2021 is not to be understated

3

52

10

WELCOME, NEW & RETURNING MEMBERS

33

AICC INNOVATION

36

MEMBER PROFILE

68

FOUNDATION FOR PACKAGING EDUCATION

70

INTERNATIONAL CORRUGATED PACKAGING FOUNDATION

56

BoxScore is published bimonthly by AICC, The Independent Packaging Association, PO Box 25708, Alexandria, VA 22313, USA. Rates for reprints and permissions of articles printed are available upon request. The statements and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of AICC. The publisher reserves the right to accept or reject any editorial or advertising matter at its discretion. The publisher is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to BoxScore, AICC, PO Box 25708, Alexandria, VA 22313, USA. ©2021 AICC. All rights reserved.

Visit www.aiccboxscore.org for Member News and even more great columns.

Scan the QR code to check them out!

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

1

OFFICERS Chairman: Jay Carman, StandFast Packaging Group, Carol Stream, Illinois First Vice Chairman: Gene Marino, Akers Packaging Service Group, Chicago, Illinois Vice Chairmen: Jana Harris, Harris Packaging/American Carton, Haltom City, Texas Matt Davis, Packaging Express, Colorado Springs, Colorado Gary Brewer, Package Crafters, High Point, North Carolina Immediate Past Chairman: Joseph M. Palmeri, Jamestown Container Cos., Macedonia, Ohio Chairman, Past Chairmen’s Council: Al Hoodwin, Michigan City Paper Box, Michigan City, Indiana President: Michael D’Angelo, AICC Headquarters, Alexandria, Virginia Secretary/General Counsel: David P. Goch, Webster, Chamberlain & Bean, Washington, DC AICC Canada Director: Renee Annis DIRECTORS West: David DeLine, DeLine Box Co., Denver, Colorado Southwest: Eric Elgin, Oklahoma Interpack, Muscogee, Oklahoma Southeast: Ben DeSollar, Sumter Packaging Corp., Sumter, South Carolina Midwest: Casey Shaw, Batavia Container Inc., Batavia, Illinois Great Lakes: Mike Schaefer,Tavens Packaging & Display, Bedford Heights, Ohio Northeast: Stuart Fenkel, McLean Packaging, Pennsauken, NJ AICC Canada: Terri-Lynn Levesque, Royal Containers Ltd., Brampton, Ontario, Canada AICC México: Juan Javier Gonzalez, Cartró, S.A.P.I. de C.V. (CP), Tepotzotlán, Mexico OVERSEAS DIRECTOR Kim Nelson, Royal Containers Ltd., Brampton, Ontario, Canada

DIRECTORS AT LARGE Finn MacDonald, Independent II, Louisville, Kentucky Guy Ockerlund, OxBox, Addison, Illinois Kevin Ausburn, SMC Packaging Group, Springfield, Missouri EMERGING LEADER DELEGATES Daniel Brettschneider, Kolbus America, Inc. Kennesaw, Georgia Cassi Malone, Corrugated Supplies Co. LLC, Chicago, Illinois Lauren Frisch, Wasatch Container, North Salt Lake, Utah ASSOCIATE MEMBER DIRECTORS Chairman: Pat Szany, American Corrugated Machine Corp., Indian Trail, North Carolina Vice Chairman: Joseph Morelli, Huston Patterson Printers, Decatur, Illinois Secretary: Greg Jones, Sun Automation, Glen Arm, Maryland Associate Board Director: Tim Connell, A.G. Stacker Inc., Weyers Cave, Virginia Immediate Past Chairman, Associate Members: David Burgess, JB Machinery, Weston, Connecticut ADVISORS TO THE CHAIRMAN Greg Tucker, Bay Cities, Pico Rivera, California Jerry Frisch, Wasatch Container, North Salt Lake, Utah Pat Szany, American Corrugated Machine Corp., Indian Trail, North Carolina PUBLICATION STAFF Publisher: Michael D’Angelo, mdangelo@aiccbox.org Editor: Virginia Humphrey, vhumphrey@aiccbox.org

SUBMIT EDITORIAL IDEAS, NEWS & LETTERS TO: BoxScore@theYGSgroup.com CONTRIBUTORS Maria Frustaci, Director of Administration and Director of Latin America Cindy Huber, Director of Conventions & Meetings Chelsea May, Education and Training Manager Laura Mihalick, Senior Meeting Manager Patrick Moore, Member Relations Coordinator Taryn Pyle, Director of Training, Education & Professional Development Alyce Ryan, Marketing Manager Steve Young, Ambassador-at-Large Richard M. Flaherty, President, ICPF ADVERTISING Information: Virginia Humphrey, vhumphrey@aiccbox.org Opportunities: Taryn Pyle 703-535-1391 • tpyle@aiccbox.org AICC PO Box 25708 Alexandria, VA 22313 Phone 703-836-2422 Toll-free 877-836-2422 Fax 703-836-2795 www.aiccbox.org

EDITORIAL/DESIGN SERVICES The YGS Group • www.theYGSgroup.com Vice President: Serena L. Spiezio Content & Copy Director: Craig Lauer Managing Editor: Jessica Price Senior Managing Editor: Sam Hoffmeister Copy Editor: Steve Kennedy Art Director: Alex Straughan Account Manager: Max Lalwani

ABOUT AICC PROVIDING BOXMAKERS WITH THE KNOWLEDGE NEEDED TO THRIVE IN THE PAPER-BASED PACKAGING INDUSTRY SINCE 1974 We are a growing membership association that serves independent corrugated, folding carton, and rigid box manufacturers and suppliers with education and information in print, in person, and online. AICC membership is for the full company and employees at all locations have access to member benefits. AICC offers free online education to all members to help the individual maximize their potential and the member company maximize its profit.

WHEN YOU INVEST AND ENGAGE, AICC DELIVERS SUCCESS.

Chairman’s Message

Now What?

T

he focus of my now two-year, pandemically stretched term as AICC chair has been on identifying the ways AICC can help your company grow. Members have been flocking to AICC’s Packaging School and attending webinars, the All-Access series seminars, Converter Think Tanks, and virtual plant tours. AICC has stepped up its game to make sure that members have the tools that they need to keep growing.

Independents have always been successful at long-term, sustainable growth and relevancy. We’re multigeneration companies. We have faced recessions, natural disasters, and now a pandemic. We have been adaptable and agile through the cultures that we have created in our operations.

Randy Wolken, writing for Forbes, suggests that “sustainable growth is not dependent solely on the market but on leadership.” AICC members are living proof of this statement.

In the past year, everything that we thought we knew has been, in many ways, tossed out the window. You have been operating with new realities. You have adapted. In the current market, unprecedented as it has been of late, you have thrived.

So, it begs the question: Now what? How do I decide on a plan for my business with so much uncertainty and disruption?

McKinsey & Co. has been doing lots of research on B2B transactions and the advancement that digital selling has made during the restrictions on travel over the past year. AICC partner Mark Allen Roberts of OTB Solutions suggests there is much to hear when you listen to the voice of the customer. Perhaps the survey of B2B companies below gives you an inkling as to why.

AICC has been providing webinars on how to ensure that your salespeople have the right skill sets to sell in the no-travel environment. Now you need to do your part and speak with your customers and prospects to determine what is going to work for them in the post-pandemic world. Likewise, AICC supplier members need to determine what is going to work in their sales and transactional relationship with you going forward.

AICC will continue to fulfill its goal of helping your company build on your Jay Carman leadership and continue to successfully President, StandFast Packaging Group grow. We can’t do it without you!

Chairman, AICC

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

3

Scoring Boxes

Manufacturing Is in a Sweet Spot

BY DICK STORAT

T

4

BOXSCORE May/June 2021

Purchasing Managers’ Index

70

Above 50 shows manufacturing expansion

65 60 55 50 45 40

Below 50 shows manufacturing contraction Below 42.7 shows economic recession

35 30

08

09

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

Source: Institute for Supply Management

Industrial Production Nondurable Consumer Goods

104

3.0%

102

2.5%

100

Index (2012 = 100)

here is no question that the coronavirus pandemic has upended the U.S. economy. COVID-19 triggered the fastest recession in U.S. history. Although the nation has clawed most of its way back from the worst effects of the pandemic, the economy remains splintered, with big winners and losers.

The pandemic and the home-oriented economy it fostered have been a boon for e-commerce and the more intensive corrugated and other paper packaging it needs to get goods safely through that retail channel to consumers. Nonstore retail sales have risen by 28% from pre-pandemic levels. But soaring e-commerce hasn’t been the only benefit for corrugated packaging demand.

After tumbling during the initial virus lockdown last year, spending for goods recovered rapidly, in part because of generous federal fiscal policy. On the other hand, spending on services also dropped, but it never recovered, as many serviceoriented businesses such as restaurants, travel and lodging, and theaters either shut down entirely or operated at substantially reduced capacity to comply with social distancing requirements.

Corrugated boxes go into the packaging of goods, which saw an upturn, and less into the services sector, which turned down.

With year-end stimulus checks and extended unemployment benefits in consumers’ hands, retail sales of goods soared in March with overall growth of 9.8%. Several categories important to demand for corrugated packaging led the growth. Nonstore retail sales (almost entirely online sales) soared by 29% in January, while building materials supply stores posted a 19% gain in sales from

2.0%

98 96

1.5%

94

1.0%

92 0.5%

90 88

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC 2019

2020

2021

0.0%

Percent Change Year-to-Date

Source: U.S. Census

year-ago levels. Food sales made up for a lackluster year-end showing by rising 12% ahead of previous January’s sales.

U.S. manufacturing is benefiting from that increased spending, which has continued through the first quarter at a strong level. The Institute for Supply Management’s monthly purchasing managers’ index is one of the most closely

watched indicators of manufacturing activity. The top chart above shows that manufacturing activity has been expanding ever since it fell so dramatically last April. Since then, the sector has been expanding for nine consecutive months, reaching its broadest expansion in three years in February. New orders, production, hiring, and exports all showed

Scoring Boxes

6

BOXSCORE May/June 2021

Food Production

118

Index (2012 = 100)

robust growth. Even faster growth was constrained by a significant rise in supply chain disruptions, as some factories in the manufacturing supply chain suffered from a shortage of employees as a result of COVID-19 infections and imported materials resulting from disruptions in international trade. Other key results from the monthly survey were the rise of backlogs to the highest level since April 2004 and a rise in raw material costs that hasn’t been exceeded in a month since May 2008.

The single largest market for corrugated in the U.S. is the packaging of nondurable goods. Some 75% of annual corrugated box shipments go to package these fast-moving consumer goods. Even though domestic production of these goods lagged behind consumer spending growth, in part because of the rising trade deficit for these goods last year, the trend since last April was still one of steady recovery, with December’s shipments exceeding prior-year output. At the outset of 2021, nondurable consumer goods production rose by 2.8% above pre-pandemic levels, a promising start to the year.

Food production is the largest and most corrugated-intensive segment of consumer nondurable goods production. Food output also got off to a good start this year with a rise of 1.7% in the domestic manufacture of food products, as the top chart at right shows.

In addition to the boost corrugated demand has received from soaring online sales and stronger demand for manufactured products, paper packaging demand has also benefited from positive conditions in the construction sector.

One of the benefits of more stay-athome time and the increase in need for home office space during the pandemic has been a rapid rise in repair and remodeling projects. As the bottom chart at right shows, pandemic stimulus checks have spurred sales at building and material supply stores. The monthly

2.50%

116

2.00%

114

1.50%

112

1.00% 0.50%

110

0.00%

108

-0.50%

106

-1.00%

104

-1.50%

102

-2.00%

100

-2.50%

98

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC 2019

2020

2021

-3.00%

Percent Change Year-to-Date

Source: Federal Reserve

Building Supply Retail Sales 15%

Month-to-Month Percentage Change

10%

5%

0%

-5%

-10% Jan. 2018

Jan. 2019

Jan. 2020

Jan. 2021

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis

increase in those sales from December to January was nearly 5%.

Construction markets, another important destination for corrugated, also started this year off with a bang.

Residential building permits rose by 22% in January, a harbinger of strong building activity ahead. Concurrently, demand for residential housing is outstripping supply, with inventories lower than in several decades. Fifty-two percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 are currently living with their parents, a level not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. As they return to the workforce,

they will sustain demand for housing for several years.

In summary, the changes brought about by our response to the coronavirus pandemic have created several bright spots in the economy that should support stronger demand for corrugated and other paper packaging.

Dick Storat is president of Richard Storat & Associates.

He can be reached at 610-282-6033 or storatre@aol.com.

AD Name of Ad

VISIT OUR WEBSITE LPCINK.COM OR CALL 800.559.1526

Legislative Report

A Million More Jobs – Gone?

BY ERIC ELGIN

I

n my column for the March/April issue, I wrote that the policy agenda of the Biden White House and Democratcontrolled Congress was providing what I thought to be a “challenging outlook for the business community in the months ahead.” As part of that challenge, I noted that the tax cuts provided by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 were likely to be a casualty of the new administration.

That legislation, which was supported by AICC and manufacturers and organizations across the business community, was like rocket fuel for manufacturers in the U.S., prompting companies to create jobs, increase wages and benefits, and invest in local communities. In 2018, for example, manufacturers created 263,000 jobs—the best year for job creation in two decades.

That was then, and this is now. In early April, the Biden administration announced its nearly $2 trillion infrastructure plan. To help pay for it, the administration is considering reversing the tax cuts under the 2017 act as follows: • Increasing the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.

• Reinstating the corporate minimum tax.

• Eliminating immediately the 100% bonus depreciation of depreciable assets, such as capital equipment, rather than phasing it out over the four-year period of 2023–2027.

• Repealing immediately the 20% deduction for certain pass-through business income, rather than allowing it to expire in 2025.

• Taxing capital gains as ordinary income for taxpayers with incomes above $1 million.

• Increasing the top individual tax rate from 37% to 39.6%, rather than allowing it to expire after 2025.

8

BOXSCORE May/June 2021

According to a study done by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), these tax increases under consideration in Congress would cost 1 million jobs in the two years following their implementation and an average loss of 600,000 jobs each year for the next decade. These increases would also, the study says, reduce GNP by hundreds of billions of dollars.

The study, conducted by the NAM in partnership with Rice University economists John W. Diamond and George R. Zodrow, found that repealing tax reform would reduce capital investment and lower wages and compensation in the long run, while undermining the economic recovery from COVID-19.

It is difficult to see this kind of reversal occurring, especially as we as an Association have worked for years to effect changes to the tax code that would help the U.S. manufacturing community become more globally competitive. After tax reform in 2017, manufacturers kept their promises to create jobs and invest in our communities—and now, we’re leading the country’s recovery from

COVID-19. Raising taxes on American companies will hinder our recovery, and jobs will be lost.

Jay Timmons, president and CEO of NAM, agrees, saying, “Manufacturers can, and should, lead the economic recovery in the wake of the pandemic, but this study tells us quantitatively what manufacturers from coast to coast will tell you qualitatively: Increasing the tax burden on companies in America means fewer American jobs.”

As lawmakers consider reversing the 2017 corporate tax cuts, AICC will be mobilizing our members and our industry allies to help preserve what we worked toward for so many years. Watch your email inbox for how you can help in this fight. We’ll need everyone on the front lines!

Eric Elgin is owner of Oklahoma Interpak and chairman of AICC’s Government Affairs subcommittee. He can be reached at 918-687-1681 or eric@okinterpak.com.

The Measure of Quality.

Cleanliness is next to...

Profitability.

The dirty little secret in box printing is this:

printers are so busy these days with customer demand, regular anilox cleaning is taking a back seat.

Pinholing, bridging, mottling, dot gain, and just plain dirty prints

are the prices to pay for irregular cleaning. Anilox cells plugged with stubborn dried ink reduce cell volume — and with it, print predictability.

Now, you can win the fight against filth — and more — with GTTCORR anilox.

GTT’s open-channel geometry means faster and easier clean-up. But that’s only the beginning. Apex customers regularly report these GTTCORR benefits on-press: • Stronger solids and finer screens on combo jobs;

CORR CORRUGATED’S FUTURE TODAY

• Quicker print speeds with consistent ink transfer across the board; • Reduced blade and plate pressure to fight fluting;

GTT Anilox Int’l.

Patent

Technical Innovation Award

Technical Innovation Award

ABFlexo Quality Award

Founding Partner

See for yourself how one top international box printer slashed deepcleaning by more than half with GTTCORR. You don’t have to put up with dirty printing any longer. Download the free article — and make cleaning easier.

L E A R N M O R E AT

w w w. a p ex i n t e r n at i o n a l . c o m

New Members

Welcome, New Members!

ESSENTRA TAPES CHRISTOPHER MORGAN Regional Sales Manager – Americas 1625 Ashton Park Dr. Colonial Heights, VA 23834 805-518-1067 www.essentra.com/en/capabilities/tapes ROOSEVELT PAPER COMPANY DAVID KOSLOFF President 1 Roosevelt Dr. Mount Laurel, NJ 08054 856-303-4100 www.rooseveltpaper.com INTERPACK CHAISE MYERS President 1102 Industrial Dr. Berryville, AR 72616 870-423-3382 www.interpackinc.com

10

BOXSCORE May/June 2021

TOTAL PACKAGING SERVICES JOHN DRINKARD Owner 2900 Sprouse Dr. P.O. Box 7529 Henrico, VA 23231 804-222-5860 www.totalpackagingservices.net/wp TRANSOUTH LOGISTICS LLC WINSTON WHITE President 1001 Cherry Dr. Braselton, GA 30517 706-658-3040 www.tran-south.com MANROLAND INC. GINA GIGLIOZZI Director of Sales Administration 800 E. Oakhill Dr. Westmont, IL 60559 630-920-2000 www.manrolandsheetfed.com

COWLITZ CONTAINER KURT VAN ORDEN President 2614 N. Hendrickson Dr. Kalama, WA 98625 360-577-8748 www.cowlitzcontainer.com DOMTAR STEVE HENRY President 234 Kingsley Park Dr. Fort Mill, SC 29715 803-802-7500 www.domtar.com CORPORATE IMAGE MICHELE CHOATE Senior Director of Strategy 1801 Thompson Ave. Des Moines, IA 50316 515-262-3191 www.corp-image.com

The next time your customer asks for recycled white top linerboard, the answer is:

Of course!

Contact us for Leipa trials or to learn about our inventory programs.

Contact Sharp Internat ional Group www.sharpinternat ionalgroup.com Phone: (757) 410-3601 rbanks@sharp-internat ional.com

Leipa linerboards are manufactured from 100% recycled waste paper for a more environmentally responsible packaging..

Members Meeting

Photos courtesy of AICC.

A Brave Independent World: Customers, Creativity, Confidence

Michael D’Angelo, AICC president, kept members informed with his State of the Association presentation.

M

ore than 340 members, guests, and 90 virtual attendees were welcomed by Jay Carman, president of StandFast Packaging Group and AICC chairman, to the 2021 AICC Spring Meeting, April 26–28, in Amelia Island, Florida. The first national industry event in over a year included a virtual plant tour of Packrite, a Sales Managers Forum, and Emerging Leader training, in addition to exceptional speakers and networking and social events.

12

BOXSCORE May/June 2021

“The speakers have all discussed current hot topics, the meeting’s virtual component has gone off without a hitch, and I have personally attended the two virtual networking opportunities. It has allowed me to feel like I am a part of the meeting while sitting 2,100 kilometers away.”

—Terri-Lynn Levesque, vice president, administration, Royal Containers

Members Meeting “I just want to thank the AICC for putting this whole event together after this last year of all of us being cooped up at home and trying to get through our businesses while still connecting with our industry friends. It’s great that we all get to come back, be together, and learn from each other.”

—Sahar Mehrabzadeh-Garcia, director of sales/POP displays, Bay Cities

Michael Drummond, president of Packrite, a trade finisher in High Point, North Carolina, treated attendees to a virtual plant tour.

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

13

Members Meeting “It has been awesome to be back with my friends and colleagues at AICC. I was telling my husband for weeks how excited I was to actually get back in person and not just Zooming anymore, so it’s been great to see everybody oneon-one.”

—Jana Harris, CEO, Harris Packaging and American Carton Co.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION Member Milestones In 2018, AICC began recognizing the longevity of independent member companies. This year, we honored six companies ranging from 40 years to more than a century in business.

100 Years

50 Years

• Isowa

• Progress Container & Display

• Tiruna

40 Years

65 Years

• The BoxMaker

• Jamestown Container Companies

Safe Shop Awards This year, AICC presented its Independent Safe Shop Awards, an annual recognition of AICC member companies for outstanding performance in plant safety in 2020 and 2021.

2021

2020

• Akers Packaging Solutions (Decatur, Illinois)

• Air Conveying Corp.

• Akers Packaging Solutions (Huntington, West Virginia) • Akers-Webster West Packaging (Evansville, Indiana) • Lawrence Paper Co., American Packaging Division • Arrow Box Co. • Box-Board Products Inc. • Wunderlich Fibre Box

• Akers Packaging Service Group (Middletown, Ohio) • Akers Packaging Solutions (Decatur, Illinois) • Akers-Webster West Packaging (Evansville, Indiana) • Akers-Webster West Packaging (North Vernon, Indiana) • Lawrence Paper Co., American Packaging Division

• Jamestown Container Rochester, HP Neun Division

• Hoosier Container Inc.

• Jamestown Container Cleveland

• Tecumseh Packaging Solutions

• McElroy Contract Packaging • Unicorr Packaging Group/ Vermont Container • Wunderlich Fibre Box Co.

14

BOXSCORE May/June 2021

Jay Carman, president of StandFast Packaging and AICC chairman, welcomed new members and first-timers during a networking reception.

Members Meeting “I had the distinct pleasure of attending the AICC Spring Meeting virtually this year. While I was extremely disappointed to not attend in person, I was incredibly encouraged at the level of interaction available via the virtual platform. I participated ‘real time’ in the Sales Manager Forum Sunday and Monday. Both speakers were engaging and thought-provoking. I was able to participate, ask questions, and share thoughts freely during the meeting.”

—Amy Hudson, sales manager, Niagara Sheets LLC

7TH ANNUAL INDEPENDENTS’ CUP CHARITY GOLF EVENT Since this tournament began in 2014, our independent industry has contributed more than $200,000 to worthy local and national charitable organizations helping the homeless, victims of domestic violence, at-risk children, those overcoming addictions, and our military veterans. With 120 golfers and 28 sponsoring companies, this year the Independents’ Cup made donations to Driving Out Darkness and the Foundation for Packaging Education.

First Place • Tom Bradford, Bradford Company • Ed Gargiulo, Equipment Finance • Tom Torosian, Torosian Tech Services • Pat Szany, American Corrugated Machine Second Place • Cade Landeche, Air Systems Design • Rob Zacary, Air Systems Design • Gene Tyler, Blackhawk Corrugated • Michael Sanders, TranSouth Logistics Third Place • Chase Haddon, Packaging Atlanta • Peter Haddon, Packaging Atlanta • Adam Kelly, Kelly Box & Packaging • Daniel Hammond, Stafford Corrugated Products

16

From left: Ed Gargiulo, Equipment Finance Corp.; Tom Bradford, Bradford Co.; Pat Szany, American Corrugated Machine; and Tom Torosian, Torosian Tech Services won first place in the golf tournament.

Contest Winners

• Closest to the Pin #4: Peter Haddon, Packaging Atlanta

• Closest to the Pin #12: Adam Kelly, Kelly Box & Packaging

• Longest Putt: Kelly Webb, MeredithWebb Printing

• Closest to the Pin #7: Stu Fenkel, McLean Packaging

• Closest to the Pin #16: David Moulder, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

BOXSCORE May/June 2021

Members Meeting

With topics ranging from cybersecurity to industry projections, attendees learned from Steve Robinson, former executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Chick-Fil-A; Al Randle, director of operations at COSEC Cybersecurity; Matt Elhardt, vice president of global sales at Fisher International; Mitch Klingher, CPA, partner at Klingher Nadler LLC; Gene Marks, CPA, columnist and small business owner; Brent Lindberg, founder of Fuseno; and Greg Tucker, CEO of Bay Cities.

Jeff Pallini, president of Fosber America, moderated a town hall discussion featuring the following panel: Pat Szany, president of American Corrugated Machine Corp.; Joseph Morelli, vice president of sales and marketing at Huston Patterson Printers; Greg Jones, executive vice president of Sun Automation; Tim Connell, director of sales at A.G. Stacker Inc.; and David Burgess, North American sales director at JB Machinery. They answered questions from the in-person and virtual audience on the top issues impacting the industry.

Michael D’Angelo, AICC president, presented the State of the Association, and Kevin Ausburn, chairman and CEO of SMC Packaging Group and the AICC chair of the Paperboard, Regulations & Sheet Supply Committee, gave a containerboard and boxboard update.

Nearly half of the meeting attendees participated in the 7th Annual Independents’ Cup Charity Golf Tournament held at the Oak Marsh Golf Course, and enjoyed the networking event where they could reconnect with old friends and make new ones. In addition, all the networking and social events were held outdoors at the resort, and attendees were able to enjoy quality time and the beautiful weather with their colleagues and friends.

The meeting, emceed first by Carman and then by Gene Marino, executive vice president of Akers Packaging Group and AICC first vice chairman, was a true reflection of a brave independent world.

18

BOXSCORE May/June 2021

Ed Wallace, managing director of AchieveNEXT Relational Capital, and Mark Roberts, CEO of OTB Solutions, lead the highly interactive Sales Mangers Forum.

SPONSORS Meeting Sponsors • Poteet Printing Systems, A Flint Group Company

• Flint Group/Packaging Inks

• HP

• Bradford Co.

• SUN Automation Group

• Domtar

• EFI

• WestRock

• Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America

• Haire Group

• Stafford Corrugated Products

• Huston Patterson

• Kolbus Hycorr • Oklahoma Interpack

• Equipment Finance Corp.

• Domino • Baumer hhs

Golf Sponsors • Bobst

• EAM-Mosca

• Fosber America

• Bay Cities

• Bradford Co.

• BW Papersystems

• Rusken Packaging

• JB Machinery

• Litho Press

• Haire Group

• AG Stacker

• McLean Packaging

• BCM Inks

• Printron

• Poteet Printing Systems, A Flint Group Company

• SUN Automation

• Dusobox

• Kao Collins Inc.

• Pamarco

• Metsä Group

• American Corrugated Machine

• Domino

• Roosevelt Paper

Save up to 30% off what you’re currently paying for health insurance with AICC’s NAM Health Care Plans!*

Health • Dental • Vision • Life Insurance AICC members now have access to NAM Health Care: a new Association Health Plan that offers you quality health insurance—at a value previously available only to the largest companies! By collaborating with Mercer, we can now offer a fully ACA‐compliant plan that leverages the size of the AICC and NAM offering your employees health care plans at what may be a more cost‐effective price.

An AHP is a health plan offered by a group of employers within an association. NAM Health Care is a bona fide pre‐rule AHP and allows AICC Members to band together to manage and purchase coverages at a competitive price. NAM Health Care is operated by the plan’s Governing Committee, made up of mostly small and medium‐sized manufacturers.

Learn more at AICC.namhealthcare.com or 855‐463‐8856.

It’s easy to get a quote, and we’re here to help if you have any questions.

NAM Health Care is an industry‐based Association Health Plan (AHP) that’s fully ACA‐compliant, administered by Mercer, and sponsored by The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), of which AICC is an affiliate member. Plans are not available to member employers in all states. Your company must be a member in good standing of AICC, The Independent Packaging

Association and in NAICS codes 31, 32, or 33.

*Congressional Budget Office: How CBO and JCT Analyzed Coverage Effects of New Rules for Association Health Plans; January 2019.

Program Administered by Mercer Health & Benefits Administration LLC AR Insurance License #100102691 | CA Insurance License #0G39709 In CA d/b/a Mercer Health & Benefits Insurance Services LLC 91600 Copyright 2019 Mercer LLC. All rights reserved.

Ask Ralph

Questions Abound

BY RALPH YOUNG

A

t the time of this writing, I was preparing for the Bank of America’s annual Global Agricultural and Materials Conference. And yes, trees are a crop, just with a longer rotation period than corn. Much of the conference had to do with the perfect storm we have been experiencing: major interruptions like delayed and now necessary mill maintenance, the winter disaster in Texas, a lack of trucks and drivers, terrible winter weather in the Midwest and East, containerboard shortages, issues with PVA adhesives, and unprecedented demands for containerboard and boxes.

During the same week, Deutsche Bank presented a two-day Zoom seminar on the European perspective on environmental, social, and sustainability issues. What happens on the other side of the pond generally makes its way to this side. Let us know if you want a copy of this public report.

Here are the questions that were asked during the general Bank of America conference: • Are you surprised by the rebound in the market? Why or why not?

• How did the market get so tight?

What was the chain of events that caused this, and how long-lasting do you think it will be?

• How much do you think e-commerce contributed to box growth over the last three quarters? Is it possible to quantify?

• How long-lasting will the e-commerce effect be? º We would roughly estimate that the post-COVID bump will be worth one percentage point incremental to existing growth—what would be your estimate? º Do you think that new applications of e-commerce, such as grocery delivery, are likely to be more or less corrugated-intensive over time?

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BOXSCORE May/June 2021

• Are we seeing any increased signs of conservation and box fatigue? º There was a recent comment on the news wires about a business startup that will bundle consumers’ e-commerce deliveries in reusable totes (Olive). Do you think consumers would be willing to wait to have their products bundled? Would that even cut down on corrugated? (It seems that the bundling operations would be the ones collecting and reselling the corrugated.)

• How important are China, Mexico, Brazil, and Europe to the U.S. containerboard market? º Do you expect China will be importing kraft liner to offset lost OCC/RCP? º Can Eukaliner® from Klabin compete?

• Are current prices so attractive that supply will be attracted to the market at an accelerated rate?

• Why can the industry never seem to sustain prosperity? You get one or two good quarters, but then the “dog eats the homework” somehow—there’s inflation, a mill goes down, logistics get screwed up, etc. º What does the industry need to do differently, if anything?

• Why can’t the containerboard and corrugated industry adopt more of a pass-through model? If the containerboard companies are such good packaging companies, wouldn’t that move the competitive battlefield to areas they are best able to defend?

• What do you think growth will be like in 2021 and 2022? How about globally?

• A few years ago, conversions seemed to be mostly centered in recycled grades, but now the move seems increasingly

to virgin conversions. Does that surprise you, given that recycled fiber prices have continued to decline?

• How much more capacity is viably converted from the graphic paper markets in the next three years that hasn’t already been announced to convert?

• How have the costs of conversions evolved over time? What’s the range, in dollars per ton? (Our past analysis places conversions at $300–$400/ton.)

• What are the costs for new recycled PMs? (Would place these projects at $600–$800/ton.)

• What are the typical lead times for equipment? What would be the timeline on a conversion versus a new PM? • What are the return assumptions in making these new investments? What do you think the price assumptions and EBITDA/ton assumptions are behind the decisions to go forward, as well as for recycled fiber pricing?

• Discuss the move to lower basis weights in North America, and how this is related to the influx of conversions.

• Does North America need a greater amount of lightweight capacity? Why? • What if any impact does e-commerce have on the demand for lighter basis weights and conversions?

• What effect is the new recycled liner index having on the box market?

If you are seeking the panel’s perspective on any of these questions, contact us.

Ralph Young is the principal of Alternative Paper Solutions and is AICC’s technical advisor.

Contact Ralph directly about technical issues that impact our industry at askralph@aiccbox.org.

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Ask Tom

Data Management, Part 1

T

he following is a recap of our first session in a series surrounding data management that was hosted by your AICC education team and moderated by me. I thought you might find the topics both relevant and compelling toward finding a better way!

The three remaining sessions, which will cover data management as it pertains to machinery, methods, and materials, will be recapped in my future 2021 BoxScore articles. I encourage you to read ahead by obtaining the recorded versions.

The recordings are available through your outstanding AICC education contacts, Chelsea May and Taryn Pyle.

In this first session, which focused on “manpower,” our goal was to answer the following question: How do we enable a “connected factory” to be available 24/7 for operational teams?

The top three explorations we utilized were as follows: • We took a holistic view of your operations.

• We explored barriers created within operating systems in order to gain full visibility into what’s happening on the shop floor as well as out in the field.

• We uncovered meaningful ways to integrate structured and unstructured data from all shop floor sources, using both existing and possibly new systems currently available.

22

helps ensure that every team at the firm is pulling in the same direction—and able to understand why.

Develop your capabilities—digital and human—to gather, merge, manage, and analyze the big data stored throughout the manufacturing firm. If procurement and production, for instance, aren’t sharing data, you can’t improve their decision-making.

Don’t expect your humans to be able to get the most out of big data without the aid of advanced analytics. For instance, with artificial intelligence and analytics doing the heavy data lifting, a company might analyze profit per hour, factoring in as many as 1,000 variables and 10,000 constraints to help manufacturers figure out what to buy, what to make, and how to make it yield the most profit in each period.

Our top three manpower opportunities that were identified for improvement are below, and they were explored in great detail by our AICC Associate member presentation panelists, made up of savvy technical and industry leadership experts from Amtech, EFI, and Kiwiplan.

Train Humans Better When a manufacturing firm adds more technology and demands greater interoperability, it creates a more complicated ecosystem. The humans already need to understand how to operate, troubleshoot, and monitor machines and related technology. Now they also need to be trained on the process of data sharing and how the entire plant can function better by embracing this new interconnectedness. For example, valve manufacturer Richards Industrials achieved a 40% increase in productivity within six months of integrating its shop-floor management software.

By showing employees how to test and measure data and helping them to understand its importance, you help get them invested in the data-driven culture.

Break Down Silos Sharing data across the manufacturing organization streamlines processes and

Lead Intelligently While demonstrating empathy for those who find change challenging and are

BOXSCORE May/June 2021

nostalgic for the “old ways,” leadership needs to prioritize developing an understanding around the value of smart devices, data analysis, and digital transformation. Leaders must understand that the results are only as good as the decision-makers themselves.

This also can’t be an IT team-only initiative. Heads of every business unit need to understand the use of big data and educate their teams about the importance of effective data security and data management.

Encourage Experimentation Data analysis should be directed at problem-solving, process improvement, and profit generation. Yet it can help to encourage people throughout the firm to experiment with the data. You may get a fresh perspective on processes or business challenges.

Establishing a data-driven culture as a priority can improve buy-in to the initiative while also leading to improved production rates, lowered costs, reduced downtime, and greater employee satisfaction along the way.

This recap was intended to create the thought that perhaps there is a better, faster, and smarter way to “do” tomorrow what we have been asking our most valuable team members to do for our most critical clients each and every day past.

If I have somehow piqued your interest, please request the recording from your AICC education team or me. It might well trigger one novel useful thought for you and your team in 2021!

Tom Weber is president of WeberSource LLC and is AICC’s folding carton and rigid box technical advisor.

Contact Tom directly at asktom@aiccbox.org.

Selling Today

Target Markets and Buyer Personas: Fishing in the Right Pond

BY TODD M. ZIELINSKI AND LISA BENSON

L

anding a new account is a lot like landing the perfect fish. Before you can fish successfully, you need to decide what type of fish you are after, where they can be found, and what type of bait and fishing method works best to hook them. Similarly, a key to successfully generating high-quality leads is by pinpointing your target market and the types of buyers within markets. When creating a target list, you typically start with target market profiling and then build out prospects’ names and contact information. Going after the right type of contact with the right messaging will improve efficiency and lead to greater success. You can take steps to ensure that you are catching the right fish (targets) and not wasting valuable time fishing in the wrong pond.

In the May/June 2018 issue of BoxScore, our article, “Best Practice Approach to Accurate Target Market Profiling,” discussed the importance of looking beyond industries and SIC codes when developing your target market profile. In the article, we provided criteria to consider when developing your target market profile. We won’t cover it in detail, but an overview of the criteria included: • Defining your markets – These are industries or segments in which you have seen success.

• Evaluating current customers – Look at emulating your best customers.

• Defining your financial objectives – Evaluate how many companies and how much spend is necessary to meet your financial objectives.

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BOXSCORE May/June 2021

• Defining contact titles – Define the decision-makers and influencers for each market.

You won’t fish in a brook if you are trying to catch tuna. Look at your current customer accounts the same way you determine where you fish and whether there are similar places to fish. Evaluate your customer accounts individually, and determine whether you would like more that are exactly like each one. Sometimes a high-spending customer creates challenges that you don’t want to duplicate.

That is OK; take them off the list. Look at the companies that are remaining, and determine why they are a good fit (spend, type of purchase, location, industry, etc.).

You are trying to develop a representation of the type of company—or companies— that you would like more of. From here, you can locate competitors that meet the same criteria to build out your target market profile.

Diving Deeper Now we need to evaluate the fish. Which fish are biting? When do they bite? What fishing method works best? What type of bait do they prefer? Of course, people making buying decisions are a bit more complicated than fish taking the bait. A tool commonly used for diving deeper to strategically pinpoint who is making purchasing decisions and why is called a buyer persona. A buyer persona is a

Selling Today

fictional representation of your ideal customer based on your existing customers’ data and may include demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals.

Your ideal fish!

Creating a buyer persona as part of your target market profile helps you understand not just who your customers are but why they are your customers, as well as when and how they buy. Keep in mind that the decision-maker may not be the person who seeks you out, so you may need several personas.

Beware of guessing as you create your personas. Assumptions are notorious for being inaccurate. You need data.

You may need to talk to or survey your customers and look at data from your CRM, marketing automation tool, social media, etc. If you search online for buyer personas, you will find some that go into extreme detail, but keep in mind that if the characteristic doesn’t help you figure out how a buyer finds you and why they choose you, it is a waste of time. You aren’t identifying a specific person; you are identifying patterns and the motivations for those patterns as they relate to their purchasing activities.

Creating Your Persona People, not companies, make purchasing decisions. This is why a buyer persona becomes an essential addition to your target market profiling. When developing your persona, determine who is involved in the buying process and what their title or role is within the company (e.g., engineering, procurement, C-suite).

Evaluate each stage of the buyer’s journey. Was the first person who reached out to you the same person who made the purchase? You may need more than one persona, but be cautious of creating too many. For each persona, answer these questions: • What products or services are they buying? How often? How much?

When are they buying?

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BOXSCORE May/June 2021

• How do they research and find packaging suppliers (e.g., internet search, word of mouth, social media, reviews, case studies, industry groups)?

• How do they buy? Do they need consultation for custom packaging, or are they buying packaging from your website? Are they buying based solely on price, or do they consider total costs and value? What are their communication preferences throughout the process?

• What roadblocks or challenges do they face? Examples include that they need agreement across multiple teams or they are under pressure to keep costs low.

• Do personal goals and motivations play a part in their purchasing decisions? Examples might be a young packaging engineer looking to prove him- or herself by delivering a unique packaging concept or an executive-level persona whose bonus depends on profitability.

• The most important question to ask is why? Why do they buy from you and not your competitor? Why did they buy a specific type of packaging?

What were the pains they were experiencing, and what was it costing them in time, money, efficiency, etc.?

It is crucial that you don’t make assumptions here.

For some questions, you might have to keep asking why to get to the root of the issue. For example, you ask your customer why they chose you, and they answer that it’s because you offer customized packaging solutions. You should ask why that mattered to them.

They may answer that it’s important that their packaging reflects their brand, and their brand reputation is tied to sales. Or they may answer that their boxes and contents were being damaged in ocean freight containers from moisture, which cost them time and money. Stopping

the hemorrhage of time and money is a good motivator.

People don’t make changes until the pain of staying where they are becomes greater than the pain of change.

Sometimes the pains of change are created by our own minds and not based on reality. By digging deep and better understanding the pains of where they are, you put yourself in a position to lessen the pains of change.

Putting It Together Once you have your target market profile and buyer personas, you are in the position to ask how your company and your products and services address the pains, goals, and motivations of this persona. You can now craft your messaging around this so that it resonates with them. Your messaging should speak directly to those areas and not be a list of products and services that might help them.

Delivering the message in a manner that the recipient prefers is also important. Think of messaging as the bait, lure, or fly, and the messaging delivery method as the fishing method (bait-fishing, fly-fishing, saltwater fishing, etc.). With the right target market profiles, personas, and specific messaging, you can focus on fishing in the right pond.

Todd M. Zielinski is managing director and CEO at Athena SWC LLC. He can be reached at 716-250-5547 or tzielinski@athenaswc.com.

Lisa Benson is senior marketing content consultant at Athena SWC LLC. She can be reached at lbenson@athenaswc.com.

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Andragogy

Change: Hard, Messy, and Gorgeous

BY JULIE RICE-SUGGS, PH.D., AND ALLI KEIGLEY

O

ne of my favorite quotes about change comes from Canadian writer Robin Sharma: “Change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous in the end.” During grad school, this was never more relevant for me than the time I spent working on revisions for peer-reviewed articles. The coveted minor revisions recommendation meant you were off to the races. But the recommended major revisions let you know things were indeed going to get messy before they got better. Only after much effort, many sleepless nights, and copious amounts of coffee would the gorgeous end be achieved.

Now, for me as the academic director of The Packaging School, this quote still holds true. It is never easy to critique your hard work. But our team knew that waiting too long to update our online courses could compromise the training experience. So, our team began the process of reviewing our educational offerings, starting with the Certificate of Packaging Science (CPS), a 12-course online curriculum that teaches the materials, processes, and influences shaping the advancement of the packaging industry.

The CPS program is an integral part of the full suite of free online courses available to AICC members.

The CPS program encompasses 60 hours of content and is composed of 572 lessons, so we knew from the start—this venture would be no easy feat. Nevertheless, we strongly believe that in order to remain fresh and relevant to the packaging industry at large, our courses must be continuously revised and improved.

You may be wondering how we approached this task. For starters, we took a page out of the peer-review process and started sorting lessons into two piles: major revisions or minor revisions. In order to group them accordingly, we asked

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questions such as: Is terminology changing?

Are there important concepts we are not covering? Is the material outdated? Are we covering pertinent packaging trends and hot topics? Our process is a targeted needs analysis—looking into where our online courses currently stand, seeing how much work is required to update them, and asking ourselves which aspects of our online training strategy need some fine-tuning.

For example, our first port of call in this process was tackling our market overview lessons. These lessons cover a brief synopsis of the specific packaging market, aiming to provide a current snapshot of the market in order to better understand its key features.

Along with identifying hot topics and gaps in learning, we use exit surveys and interviews. These methods allow us to ask for student feedback regarding the content and setup of the courses. When reviewing this data, we look for patterns or specific trends in answers to gauge aspects of the material needing improvement.

And not all our updates are fact-based.

Our creative team has also been hard at work refreshing our e-learning templates to give the courses a more modern feel.

Along these lines, we have been reevaluating our aesthetics by taking a closer look at course graphics, charts, and color schemes.

The goal is a look that is clean, clutter-free, and entrenched in the digital age.

Additionally, we have been incorporating curated videos into the curriculum.

During the pandemic, our creative director, Kevin Keigley, came up with the idea for a social media offering called The Packaging School Show. The show was born out of a desire to stay connected while everyone was quarantined at home.

Keigley wanted the videos to be fun and educational, and he wanted to highlight the innovative ways people all around the

globe are working hard (specifically in the packaging arena) to make the world a better place. Adding this bonus content to our more formal curriculum makes the courses relatable and appealing to the younger generations.

Overall, in the last year, our team has updated more than 120 lessons within the CPS curriculum. And we’re not the only online education provider seeking to better their content. AICC has translated 20 courses on their educational platform into Spanish as yet another way to make members more successful.

Mary Niemiec, associate vice president for distance education at the University of Nebraska, gave the following response to any who believe that online courses can be left untouched after the launch: “That’s like telling a faculty member, once you develop a syllabus, don’t worry about updating it.”

The team here at The Packaging School and our partner, AICC, are motivated and determined to keep this “syllabus” updated.

Whether we have minor or major revisions in the quest to make our courses as useful, appealing, and as up to date as possible, we are prepared to go through the messy middle to reach the gorgeous end.

Julie Rice Suggs, Ph.D., is academic director at The Packaging School.

She can be reached at 330-774-8542 or julie@packagingschool.com.

Alli Keigley, who contributed to this article, is production coordinator at The Packaging School.

She can be reached at alli@ packagingschool.com.

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Leadership

How You Get Things Done SCOTT ELLIS, ED.D.

I

s your life simpler than it was a year ago? As I write this column, we have completed one lap around the sun since the pandemic was declared. It is helpful to ask oneself this question even in mundane years. Is my life simpler than it was a year ago? Simpler, as in less cluttered, more focused, less complicated.

Put another way, are you focusing your energy and time on the things that matter most to you?

We normally use culture to describe the way in which a society, an organization, or even a family gets things done. This includes both the written and tribal knowledge. When I use the term to discuss an individual’s culture, I am talking about how that person gets things done, knowing that it is affected by conscious choices and unquestioned perceptions and methods based on personal experience. So, if I aspire to a simpler life, I will start with these disciplines:

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• Make more conscious choices.

• Examine those choices I make automatically.

• Prioritize according to what is most important to me.

• Reduce or eliminate the expense of time and energy on everything else.

Let’s use an exemplary 30-something professional to illustrate the steps of this exercise. Her name is Danielle Tyger.

Make More Conscious Choices Danielle is the rare millennial who manages her time based on yes rather than no. She has taken the time to think about what is most important to her, the activities and expenses of time and bandwidth that merit her attention. These are the things she desires to say yes to. She finds it easier now to say no to the priorities of others, because she knows what she values most. She is ambitious in goals for both career advancement and the health of relationships with

her spouse and their child. She feels that she has lost any semblance of work-life balance this past year. She is currently working to better articulate her goals and her values with the hope of improving her decision-making and reducing her yeses.

Examine Automatic Choices Next, Danielle looks more closely at the choices she makes without much forethought. These include some decisions made under stress or fatigue when we tend to switch to autopilot mode. Some of them are impulsive reactions she calls “oh what the heck” choices that rarely end well. Still others seemed rational until she examined them and saw that they were based on family norms and practices that she had not questioned.

Prioritize Based on What Is Important to You Danielle pushed back on this idea, because she saw it as a selfish way to look

Leadership

at her life. However, when asked what is most important to her, she listed her closest relationships and using her talents and experience to have a positive impact in her career, family, and community.

What is most important to Danielle is not at all self-serving, but the priorities of others would have spent her time and energy, were she to leave them in charge.

Yes, I am saying that the default setting is that someone else will manage your time.

Reduce or Eliminate the Expense of Time and Energy on Everything Else Having gained a better understanding of her decision-making grid and having prioritized accordingly, Danielle began a measured approach to eliminating the distractions and activities that are not high priorities. Some of these were worthy causes, but she said no to them because she is serving a higher-priority yes.

She is being more careful about her calendar but has also changed the way she works and plays. For example, Danielle stopped going to two of her many weekly meetings and uses the time to solve recurring problems. She and her husband recently decided that their child did not really need to be involved in hockey, ballet, and math olympics concurrently. They also made the tough decision to sell their boat because the enjoyment-to-maintenance ratio no longer worked for them.

Like Danielle, most of us live cluttered lives, with our priorities in an indiscriminate mix with those of others. Living an uncluttered life is not easy. It takes time and discipline to intentionally live with your values as a guide to the expense of time and resources. Now Danielle has a vision for who she is and what she intends.

Michelangelo has been credited with saying that sculpting the David was easy—he envisioned the king and then chiseled away everything that was not David. It is not easy, but Danielle is chipping away the things that distract and steal her time and attention from what matters most. It will be her masterwork.

Scott Ellis, Ed.D., delivers training, coaching, and resources that develop the ability to eliminate obstacles and sustain more effective and profitable results. He recently published Dammit, Learning Judgment Through Experience. His books and process improvement resources are available at workingwell.bz. AICC members enjoy a 20% discount code: AICC21.

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

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INNOVATION Leadership

Are You Prepared to Manage Your Employees’ New Expectations?

T

he discussion for the next AICC Converter Think Tank, Friday, June 18, at 2:00 p.m. ET, will focus on managing employees in a virtual world and accountability. A panel of AICC members will share their unique experiences and answer questions from attendees.

Attendees will hear from leaders who communicate effectively with their people and have developed standards for their companies and their employees. The longterm impact that COVID-19 has had on their work-from-home policies will also be addressed.

Gene Marino, executive vice president at Akers Packaging Service Inc., and Joe Morelli, vice president of sales and marketing at Huston Patterson Printers, will moderate the session, and panelists will be announced soon.

AICC’s Converter Think Tanks help AICC members navigate the complexities of work, employees,

customers, and overall business challenges. This series was developed to foster peer-to-peer conversations on topics impacting members’ businesses today and beyond. Each session focuses on a specific challenge and recruits members to offer their

insights and perspectives based on their successes, challenges, and attendee questions.

As always, Converter Think Tanks are free to all AICC members, but registration is required. Learn more at www.aiccbox.org/calendar.

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

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AICC Innovation

Leadership

There Is No Job Title Called Leadership

BY BEN BAKER

“L

eadership is about people. Period.

Great leadership is about inspiring people, serving people, caring for people, and caring about people. You have to tell them you care.” —Gary Kelly, CEO, Southwest Airlines In all the years that I have consulted for organizations, large and small, I have never been handed a business card with the person’s name and the title “leadership” on it. That is because leadership is a mindset and not a job title.

Leadership is not about the corner office, the pay bump, the title, or the power. It is about empowering others to succeed and enabling others to reach their potential.

Unfortunately, many organizations never train their people to be leaders. People need to be taught the difference between managing processes and leading people— how to inspire, coach, motivate, and get the best out of each person they lead.

Leadership is about understanding people. It is about being humane to human beings and realizing that each person you lead comes to work every day with their own wants, needs, desires, hopes, dreams, fears, and frustrations. Great leaders understand this and do what it takes to help each person to reach their potential.

Leaders communicate! They take the time to explain what needs to be done and why, and then allow people to accomplish projects in their ways. As leaders, you hire and retain employees because you believe in them. You believe in their skills, intuition, creativity, and their ability to succeed. It is not your role as leader to tell an employee exactly what needs to be done, but rather to provide them with

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tasks and tools to grow and let them come back to you with goals accomplished.

It is not the role of a leader to micromanage but to check in and see what prevents that person from achieving success and then removing roadblocks that they cannot remove themselves.

Leaders make safe spaces for those they lead to fail, learn, and eventually succeed.

To give them the knowledge that if they have the company’s outcomes and goals in mind, and if challenges occur, they will not be criticized, but will instead be asked what went wrong and what can be or could have been done better.

Leadership is about listening to, understanding, and valuing others. Through listening and believing that others within your team have insights and ideas that may be better than yours, everyone wins.

Employees are more engaged, creative, and motivated and provide better customer experiences that eventually create less price-sensitive and more loyal customers.

The challenge is that most leaders are never taught how to lead. As businesses, we pluck employees out of the pack who are great tacticians or doers of tasks and put them in leadership roles without helping them transition from implementers to motivators and coaches. The challenge is, just because you are great at doing a task does not mean you have the skills to help others do the same.

Not training people how to help others succeed is the downfall of many businesses. Untrained leaders are ineffective communicators, and this leads to unengaged employees who either never live up to their potential or

Ben Baker has taught several AICC webinars this year, including How to Engage, Retain, and Grow Employees and How to Lead in a Virtual World.

Recordings of all of Baker’s webinars are available through the All-Access Pass: www.aiccbox.org/pass leave. Either way, this costs organizations hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

Leadership builds brands, creates great culture, reinforces corporate purpose, and enables companies to stop being commodities and start being brands worth loving. That fact alone, being a loved brand, differentiates you in the market and keeps you from fading into obscurity.

None of this is easy; all of this takes effort, but the long-term ROI is well worth the investment. Leadership is a mindset and not a job title, and those companies and the leaders within them, who believe in and live this statement, will be profitable and reading this article for decades to come.

Ben Baker is president of yourbrandmarketing.com, an employee engagement consultancy designed to help you effectively communicate the value of your brand effectively. He is the author of two books: Powerful Personal Brands: A Hands-On Guide to Understanding Yours and Leading Beyond a Crisis: A Conversation About What’s Next. Ben also hosts the iHeart- and Spotify-syndicated YourLIVINGBrand.live show, with more than 270 episodes.

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Member Profile

Master Packaging: Mastering the Art of Excellence

BY STEVE YOUNG

COMPANY: Master Packaging ESTABLISHED: 1996 JOINED AICC: 2008 PHONE: 506-389-3737 Photos courtesy of Master Packaging.

WEBSITE: www.master-packaging.com LOCATIONS: Dieppe, New Brunswick, Canada PRSIDENT & CEO: Mary Jean Irving Celebrating Master Packaging’s 25th anniversary are, from left: David Lint, vice president of sales; Mary Jean Irving, president and CEO; and Mike Auffrey, vice president of manufacturing.

M

ary Jean Irving, president and CEO of Master Packaging in Dieppe, New Brunswick, Canada, was admittedly a bit hesitant when her father suggested she get into the box business back in the 1990s. Her outlook has certainly changed, as the company celebrates its 25th year in business. “It’s a very interesting business,” says Irving. “We have been blessed with an exceptional team of people, outstanding support of customers, and a lot of great suppliers. Like any business, we have had our share of challenges, but we are very pleased with our accomplishments.”

The privately held Irving Group of Companies has a long and storied history in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. “My family’s been in business

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since the first sawmill was opened in 1882, so almost 140 years now serving customers,” Irving reports. “One of our core businesses is built around forestry, so it was a natural fit to open Master Packaging and contribute to the family value chain—from seed to shelf. We have land where we plant two trees for each one we harvest. The wood feeds our pulp and paper divisions, which include a tissue, newsprint (SC), and pulp mill along with a corrugated medium mill.”

Master Packaging’s corrugated division occupies a 400,000-square-foot building in Dieppe (pronounced, dee-EP), while its sister folding carton division is housed in a 300,000-square-foot facility in Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island, a neighboring province.

Founded in 1996, the corrugated division started as a sheet plant in Borden and then, in 1998, expanded into New Brunswick, where they built the corrugated plant and installed a new corrugator. The original sheet plant in Borden continued to operate and was converted into a carton plant in 2004. “We built the corrugated and folding carton plants from the ground up, a complete greenfield installation for both,” Irving says, admitting, “We didn’t have a lot of regional expertise to rely on.”

Irving credits Corrugated Synergies (CSI) as their consultants who provided significant help during their startup. Today, in its 25th year, the company boasts world-class facilities and equipment that includes a 110"

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“A number of our customers use both folding cartons and corrugated, so there is a real opportunity for us to provide one-stop shopping for their needs.”

Litho labels are also a growing part of Master Packaging’s mix, says Mike Auffrey, the company’s vice president of manufacturing. “We leverage the folding carton plant to produce labels on our world-class KBA presses and then laminate here in the corrugated division,” he says.

The Company’s Vision Master Packaging’s stated mission is “to be the leader in packaging solutions.”

The company ensures that they deliver on their vision through what they call the mission of “three P’s”—purpose, people, and process.

Master Packaging’s folding carton plant in Borden-Carleton, Prince Edward Island, is housed in a 300,000-square-foot facility.

BHS high-speed corrugator along with wide-web flexo presses, KBA offset presses, and a full complement of state-of-the art finishing end equipment in both plants.

In the past three years, Master has invested over CA$70 million into its corrugated division and another CA$30 million in its folding carton plant to support future growth. “We are very proud to partner with some of the best equipment manufacturers in the world,” Irving says. “We continue to invest in the business in order to meet the ever-changing needs from our customers and to help with improving overall efficiencies.”

The Market and Mix New Brunswick, along with Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, are known as the Canadian Atlantic Provinces. The region has a resource-based economy dependent largely on forestry, agriculture, and fishing, but it also includes tourism, a good-sized manufacturing segment,

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and a growing service sector. The corrugated division is described as having a “seasonal component,” with agriculture and the fishery driving peaks into demand. The carton division also sees some variability in demand, but the mix is largely around consumer products and value-added retail products, so demand is more evenly distributed. The plants are close to the Northeast United States, and they also ship into Québec and as far west as Ontario. These have turned into core markets for both divisions that are served regularly by a dedicated group of carriers to each geographic segment.

David Lint is vice president of sales at Master Packaging. He says the foundation of business for both divisions is really food, beverage, and consumer products. While there has been some movement to more decorated cartons and retail-ready-type features, a large portion of the business remains in brown box in the corrugated plant. Says Lint,

Purpose Master Packaging’s purpose is “to be a valuable asset to our customers.” When asked to define “valuable asset,” Irving, Lint, and Auffrey all offer noteworthy interpretations with which any independent in the industry would agree.

“Without our customers we wouldn’t be in business,” says Irving. “We pride ourselves on our technical expertise and providing 24/7 support and comprehensive, end-toend solutions from creative, production art, prepress, plates, and finally the finished product with exceptional quality, service, and responsiveness.”

Auffrey adds his perspective from the manufacturing side of the business: “Being an asset to our customer is something that is part of our culture here,” he says, referring to Master Packaging’s collaborative approach to improving quality or implementing lean manufacturing practices not only in their own plants, but in their customers’ plants as well. “This is part of our value proposition to our customers—they are our partners.”

Lint offers a simple example that illustrates the partnered approach they take

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with their customers. “A customer had requested an outside glue joint—we can certainly give them an outside glue joint, but our job is to understand the reason why they want it and explain the cost implications that are associated with their request,” he says. “Increased setup times cost money, and it is our job to ensure our customers understand what drives costs into their packaging.”

“We want to have a very close relationship with our customer,” says Irving. “We want to make our customers successful; and if they’re successful, we’re successful.”

People Master Packaging’s second “P” in their quest to be the leader in packaging solutions is people. “I like to focus a lot on people,” says Irving, “because people are a quality of the business that I value very much. With good people you can drive improvement and add value as a supplier.”

Master Packaging has a very disciplined approach for recruiting, training, and retaining good people. It begins with careful recruiting and onboarding practices designed to identify talent and attitude early on. The company’s continual reinvestment in new technology has also helped attract a new generation

of tech-savvy employees. Says Auffrey, “The challenge we’ve had in recruiting in the past is that entry-level positions in the plant are very physical, and our investment in automation gave us the opportunity to reduce some of these manual tasks and focus on leveraging automation and technology.”

He says that Master attracts a lot of young people with post-secondary education, either from community colleges or universities. “They’re coming in; they’re bright and curious, and for running these modern presses and corrugator, you need that kind of skill set.”

Once a recruit is inside the door, Master employs a determined onboarding process in each of its plants. “We have a dedicated trainer in each plant. His or her sole mandate,” says Auffrey, “is to onboard and to follow those new recruits through a disciplined and structured training program.”

Employees enjoy frequent opportunities to cross-train to increase their skills and increase their value to the company. Says Auffrey, “We have a very simple process for evaluating our people. It’s based on attitude and performance.”

Auffrey adds that this training is plantwide, saying, “We don’t just cross-train

in one area. If you’re a flexo folder gluer operator, we’re going to cross-train you on the corrugator. We have a great number of long-term employees who have crosstrained in many parts of the plant who are extremely valuable to the operation.”

Lint and the company’s HR group also use a tailored approach when hiring sales representatives at Master. “We train them our way, and we get them inside both plants to learn about the operation. They are selling a solution, and they need to be very well versed in all aspects of the business,” he says.

Master Packaging’s involvement in AICC has assisted with its efforts to design and implement its companywide education and training program. AICC’s online Packaging School, for example, plays a major role in the company’s ongoing employee education and training.

“Every week you’ll find employees taking advantage of the online courses,” says Lint.

Adds Irving, “Because we are so far away from universities and packaging schools, it has helped us a lot being able to take advantage of webinars and online courses. They have helped tremendously.”

Irving calls this attention to recruiting and training an investment. “We do a lot of cross-training here,” she says. “We

Master Packaging’s 110" BHS corrugator was installed in 2017 in their corrugated plant in Dieppe, New Brunswick.

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Member Profile

invest a lot in our employees because we feel they’re a significant part of the team.

We listen to them. They’re working on the floor; they have a lot of great ideas. We’re very proud of them because they really want to do a good job.”

This investment in people contributes significantly to Master Packaging’s ability to be a valuable asset to their customers.

“Every month we get together as a team to review opportunities for improvement in all departments,” Irving explains. “It doesn’t matter how small it is. It promotes accountability and discussion; we see it as a very important part of our overall quality program.”

Lint agrees, saying, “We’re driving continuous improvement in every aspect of the business monthly. There’s a lot of accountability around here.”

Process The third “P” within their mission is process. Master’s recent capital investments into their facilities, equipment, and technology work in unison with process improvements; all are designed to lower costs and provide value to the customer.

Auffrey sees technology, in addition to people, as the driver of quality and value to the customer. “We’ve retrofitted older equipment to be more modernized so we can get the one-, two-box setup,” he explains, adding that “by conveyorizing and automating our plant, we’re able to reduce our waste.”

Auffrey also praises the capacity and speed of Master’s BHS corrugator in lowering costs and improving quality. “Modern corrugators today have good-quality systems where your starch consumption is lower, the heat is lower, and so you’re running a cooler corrugator,” he says. “All these things drive cost down and waste down.”

Irving adds that education and communication are also important for employees to understand processes. “A number of years ago, we began an initiative to

Master Employees Speak Up Master Packaging’s emphasis on people in its overarching mission has garnered the company a longtime, loyal workforce. Two employees, Jennifer and Keith, have been with the company since its founding in 1996. Here is what they have to say about working at Master Packaging.

“I remember my first day as if it were yesterday; it is hard to comprehend that 25 years have passed,” says Jennifer. “I have worn many different hats and have been grateful for the support and encouragement during the good days and challenging days. There have been many changes over the years, and one constant that I appreciate is the continuing opportunity to learn.”

Responding to the question, “What makes Master Packaging a winning and sustainable organization?” Keith, Master Packaging’s maintenance manager, says, “In the 25 years that I have been with the company I can honestly say that the answer to that question is ‘execution’ and ‘dedication.’ Having the ability and the empowerment to take action to generate desired results is key to the success and growth of this company. Master Packaging has a great team of people at all levels of the company who are passionate about what they do and put the company’s best interest before their individual needs.

Personal egos are checked at the door, and we are given a platform to excel and thrive in a very productive and professional environment. Having grown up with the company and seen its evolution through the years has given me a great perspective on how things have progressed over a 25-year span. The bumps and bruises along the way were needed to establish a pathway for sustainable success, and I consider myself very fortunate to have seen this evolution firsthand. Master Packaging is and always will be a second home to me, and I will always cherish the relationships I have built here through the years with everyone I came across with.”

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In Master Packaging’s Customer Experience Room, customers collaborate with Master’s design team to maximize box performance and graphic impact.

create awareness on waste, sharing with employees the cost of a roll of paper and also implementing a plantwide incentive program,” she says. “I knew the message was getting through when one time I was walking through the plant, somebody was about to step on a sheet, and another employee came up, grabbed it, and said, ‘That is not waste.’ So we knew we were making headway there.”

The Next 25 Years “Full steam ahead,” says Irving when asked about Master Packaging’s next 25 years. “We’re flexible, so we’re open to new opportunities. We see an opportunity coming with industries pulling away from plastics, going to fiber-based packaging, so we’re focused on that right now and where that’s going and how can we service our customers for the future on that.”

Like every other company in the industry, Master has felt both challenges and rewards as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the physical environment of the plants, Irving says that most administrative employees are still working remotely and that those in the plant are following an approved operational plan that ensures that testing protocols are in place for all who enter the plants, as well

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as physical distancing, wearing of masks or PPE, and increased sanitization in all areas if the business. Meetings are virtual.

“Everybody adapted very quickly,” she says. “We didn’t miss a beat. We just miss seeing people.”

On the sales side, Lint says that the challenges were different depending on the region. “We traditionally spend a great deal of time in our customers’ offices and plants, so we really missed the face-to-face interaction and working with our technical team to drive improvements in our customers’ plants. We did move a lot to virtual meetings, but certainly the lack of site visits was a challenge, along with reacting to spikes in demand from customers,” he says. “The only thing that was certain was the uncertainty of their demand. We did a phenomenal job and were able to look after the increase in customer demand.”

Ever vigilant, Irving and her team at Master Packaging are also developing a contingency plan for cyberattacks.

In response to recent high-profile attacks within the containerboard and corrugated industries, she says they are working on contingency planning to ensure that they can operate the plants manually for a number of weeks to be prepared for such an event.

Master Packaging’s 25-year anniversary is a noteworthy milestone. For a company that started with two greenfield plants and without a lot of industry expertise, their pride in becoming one of the largest privately held independents in Canada is a great success story. The company’s mission to be the leader in packaging solutions is supported by its purpose, its people, and its processes. All are woven together into a culture that provides exceptional quality and service to its customers.

To mark the 25 years, Master Packaging is celebrating the significant milestone all year long. They have prize draws on the 25th of each month, culminating in November, when they will have 25 grand prizes each day, with a final Super Grand draw on the 25th for a brand-new 5.0-liter 460-horsepower Ford Mustang GT. “Recognizing your people is key,” Irving says. “We celebrate the wins. We have a lot of fun.”

Steve Young is AICC’s ambassador-at-large.

He can be reached at 202-297-0583 or syoung@aiccbox.org.

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BACK AND BETTER

TOGETHER The excitement surrounding the much-anticipated SuperCorrExpo 2021 is not to be understated

By M. Diane McCormick

W

hen the world slowed down for a pandemic, boxmaking sped up. Boxmakers put the pedal to the metal, extracting ever-higher efficiencies and throughput from their processes to meet soaring demand.

Now, they’re ready for the leap into a postpandemic economy in which warp speed and unceasing demand are the norm. SuperCorrExpo 2021, delayed in 2020 and returning for the first time since 2016, is the springboard for diving into that churning, revitalizing economy.

“Like everyone, our lives have been turned upside down,” says Brett Jaffe, CEO of Ohio Blow Pipe and C&M Conveyor. “We’re an essential industry and an essential supplier to the industry, and that allowed us to keep running during times when most businesses

were forced to change their operating practices.

As e-commerce has accelerated, our industry is in a growth period that it appears will last well into the future.”

The 2021 edition of SuperCorrExpo, the Western Hemisphere’s biggest showcase for the corrugated packaging-focused trade, brings back a live exposition packed with new technology and innovations that drive efficiencies and keep the workplace safe and healthy.

Under strict safety precautions, SuperCorrExpo 2021 offers a mix of engaging new events and classic, information-packed favorites. And because it’s all packed into one of the first live expos staged in almost two years, SuperCorrExpo 2021 offers the chance to rebuild personal networks fed but hardly nourished by virtual connections.

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“SuperCorrExpo is a great forum when you’re trying to stay up on the industry, get that edge, and help your customers’ quality and throughput.”

—Jay Carman, AICC chairman and president and CEO, StandFast Packaging Group

Technology and Innovations When COVID-19 accelerated the e-commerce trend already underway, the boxmaking industry accelerated along with it.

“What was going to take five or 10 years got compressed into one or two years,” says Jay Carman, president and CEO of StandFast Packaging Group and current AICC chairman. “E-commerce was growing a lot, but it grew exponentially because of the pandemic.”

Now, SuperCorrExpo—a huge event that has “grown over the years just as the industry and AICC have grown,” says

Carman—will showcase the wealth of ideas emerging from the lockdown.

While the big machinery that vendors bring to SuperCorrExpo takes center stage, Carman notes that the supporting players, such as software, and ancillary products like conveyors promise new heights in throughput, sustainability, and product quality. “We’re getting into palletization and robots and automation, which is huge,” says Carman. “It’s amazing to see how this industry has grown and evolved with technology and capability over the years.”

Eye-popping print capabilities, dryers that speed the process, and die cutters that streamline scoring and folding also get their time in the sun, notes Carman.

Even a nuanced innovation “can yield a lot of efficiencies. SuperCorrExpo is a great forum when you’re trying to stay up on the industry, get that edge, and help your customers’ quality and throughput,” he says.

Other industry leaders are eager to see or show the machinery and software that invigorates the unboxing experience—another trend accelerated by the pandemic. “Retailers will have a big focus, design-wise, on making packaging as unique as they can so there is still some branding coming to customers even if those people aren’t physically in their stores,” says Cassi Malone, customer service manager for Corrugated Supplies Co. and a member of AICC’s Emerging Leaders (EL) program.

Inside-out printing is part of that trend, adds Dave Burgess, sales director for JB Machinery. “The retailer doesn’t want the public to know they just shipped a Rolex watch, but they want the buyer, when they open that box, to have a premium unboxing experience,” he says.

A Vibrant Marketplace Before a previous SuperCorrExpo, SMC Packaging Group worked a pre-show deal to buy a machine right off the exhibition floor. The equipment manufacturer didn’t have to ship it back home, and SMC Packaging Group got a new pretested machine for its Springfield, Missouri, plant.

Now, SMC Packaging is entering its 50th year and promoting its evolution, says Chairman and CEO Kevin Ausburn.

The company made major capital investments recently, and as always, SuperCorrExpo will offer an opportunity to reconnect with the makers of that machinery. Seeing suppliers on the expo floor “plants the seed that their quality

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remains consistent,” Ausburn says. “You get more and more comfortable with their ability to service your needs after the sale.

You develop a long-term relationship with the supplier and maintain contacts with all the different manufacturers that call on us anyway.”

SuperCorrExpo provides a platform for boxmakers and suppliers to share trends and ideas—more crucial than ever after months of isolation. AICC Associate members are prepared to show the machinery, services, and supports that help boxmakers keep pace with skyrocketing demand. “We’re trying to support the marketplace, as there’s higher demand for these products,” says Jaffe. “We provide efficiencies so our customers can get greater throughput in their business. Our innovative designs, products, and solutions help our customers optimize the output within the same footprint, while improving safety and costs.”

In the post-pandemic economy, health and safety take on new importance, and vendors are prepared to address that concern, too. While workplace safety has long been a top priority for boxmakers, the pandemic heightened awareness of air quality and basic preventive measures to improve workforce health and, in turn, boost productivity. “With the elevated awareness regarding airborne particulates and their relationship to employees’ health, productivity improvements, and the happiness of employees, many companies are looking for ways to better take care of the air their employees are breathing,” says Jaffe, who will be showing Ohio Blow Pipe’s new AIRSCREEN Micro, an ambient air cleaner that filters molecular particulates such as dust and viruses that include COVID-19, at SuperCorrExpo.

Exciting Events When JB Machinery has a new product, it’s submitted to the Innovator

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“An expo can reveal the energy of trends moving in the marketplace, where gaps are present, and where customers desire solutions. That’s much more difficult to do via web calls and remote locations.”

—Brett Jaffe, CEO, Ohio Blow Pipe and C&M Conveyor of the Year Award competition. The company’s KleenPlate 3.0 auto plate wash and print defect eliminator is a past winner, and unveilings of further innovations are possible at SuperCorrExpo 2021, hints Burgess.

The Innovator of the Year Award is “a great door opener” for introducing state-of-the-art innovations to new audiences, he says.

That kind of exposure, he adds, is “the essence of SuperCorrExpo. It’s a great place to show your new products.”

Malone is looking forward to another exciting new feature—the 2021 Box Manufacturing Olympics. For the first time, the TAPPI CorrPak and AICC Package Design Competition are combining into one power-packed competition for the finest creations from

producers and suppliers in corrugated, folding carton, and rigid box. Judges will scrutinize entries for innovations in 43 categories, including structure, printing, combined techniques, digital, e-commerce, and student. With submissions from around the globe, the displays are sure to be dazzling. “I’m always amazed by what people can dream up and then turn into reality,” says Malone.

Malone is also eager to hear the powerhouse array of speakers lined up for SuperCorrExpo 2021. They include Peter G. Watson, president and CEO of Greif Inc. His thoughts on servant leadership, she anticipates, will offer just the kind of knowledge that ELs are constantly seeking. “What thought processes do we need to get to that next

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level?” she says. “Everyone’s eventually looking to get into that next executive position. It’s always interesting to hear different leadership perspectives.”

Ending the Networking Drought After a long stretch of isolation and its first cousin—virtual meetings— SuperCorrExpo 2021 convenes the globe’s boxmakers and suppliers for the face-toface encounters they’ve been hungry for.

Industry leaders agree that expos bring people together to strengthen networks built over the years.

“You’re not just on a customer-supplier level,” says Burgess. “You’re on a friendship level. It gives you an unfair advantage to at least getting in to present your product. What you do with it then is entirely up to you, but it does give you the opportunity to open the door.”

SuperCorrExpo cultivates mutually beneficial relationships between boxmakers and suppliers, agrees Carman.

“You get to know these guys pretty well over the years,” he says. “We’re trying to support them, and they’re trying to support us. We’re all vested in trying to improve the industry.”

Jaffe says his team has done very well with remote meetings, but “nothing beats face-to-face meetings and deepening our long-term and new relationships.” For industry leaders who rarely have the time to talk or connect, especially during the pandemic, SuperCorrExpo offers “a great venue that allows us to meet at strategic levels and share what’s new while strengthening our relationships.

With this pent-up demand, I feel this will be an exciting time to meet with many industry experts and supplier partners,” Jaffe says.

The EL sessions at AICC conferences, including SuperCorrExpo, convene young professionals for training and idea-sharing, equipping them to sustain the industry into the future. Malone is looking forward to meeting the EL

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cohort again, after more than a year of virtual programs, trainings, happy hours, and networking. “It’s really good to get in person and see everybody again,” she says.

While expos might be best known as the places where boxmakers learn what’s new in machinery and software, suppliers use conferences such as SuperCorrExpo as listening posts.

Customers speak up, and vendors turn those conversations into the next innovations in throughput, material handling, and workplace environment.

The dialogue elevates the entire industry.

“There are many things we can do over the internet, but a lot of the collaboration and idea generation and true voice of the customer requires coming together, where people can see and hear and feel the excitement,” says Jaffe. “An expo can reveal the energy of trends moving in the marketplace, where gaps are present, and where customers desire solutions. That’s much more difficult to do via web calls and remote locations.”

AICC members and suppliers are eager to reconnect, share best practices, and attend educational sessions, says Ausburn.

“One of the benefits of SuperCorrExpo is learning from each other what works and doesn’t work,” he says. “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

Making personal contact with peers is a big reason for attending national meetings, Ausburn adds, and since pandemic conditions have lifted, “there’s a lot of pent-up demand to get out and see people.”

‘Come on Down’ As the boxmaking industry emerges from the pandemic, every company will have stories to tell of obstacles overcome and innovations cultivated. C&M Conveyor and Ohio Blow Pipe recently combined into a singular ownership, and the reconfigured entity is now gaining the synergies that will provide a multitude of

comprehensive solutions for customers.

SuperCorrExpo will be the first time the two industry-leading companies will display in the same booth, demonstrating the technology and service advancements to support boxmakers. There will be a few surprises, Jaffe promises.

“We’re excited about revealing the great changes to the organization, while maintaining the customer service we’re known for,” he says. “Both businesses have a storied history and great reputations for robust systems, innovative products, and world-class installations, and we’re proud to put them on display at SuperCorrExpo.”

In large part, boxmakers and suppliers have spent the last 18 months focused on meeting the moment. They have risen to the occasion and met demand, but a lot of treading water has been going on.

Now, SuperCorrExpo 2021 offers the chance to look ahead and think strategically. “This is an opportunity for us to take a deep breath and see that we’re doing well,” says Carman.

“We’re adjusting. Now, we have to think about what our next move is or what we need to do in addition to what we’re doing. We’re getting there now, but SuperCorrExpo gives us an opportunity to get out of our four walls, sit back, and see things from a different perspective.”

As boxmakers and suppliers strive for the efficiencies and breakthroughs that take the industry to the next level, Burgess has a simple message for everyone.

“Come on down,” he says. “A lot of people will use the opportunity to show some new products. Let’s try like hell to put together a great trade show.”

M. Diane McCormick is a Pennsylvania-based freelance writer.

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Manufacturers were already taking advantage of e-commerce in recent years, but their adaptability amid a pandemic is setting them up for greater growth

By Lin Grensing-Pophal

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ver the past year, brick-and-mortar stores were forced to, or chose to, shut down their physical facilities. This, along with consumers’ ongoing concerns about personal safety during the coronavirus pandemic resulting in an en masse shift to purchasing online, means that e-commerce sales have been booming.

So have demands for box manufacturers to provide the packaging required to ship products to both stores and consumers.

This rise in demand, though, isn’t solely because of the virus, Ron Sasine, principal of retail packaging consultancy Hudson Windsor, points out. Even back in 2018 and 2019, year-over-year growth in the e-commerce merchandise channel was already underway. “There was a significant amount of growth that the large retailers were forecasting, and they were working to make sure that they had fulfillment centers, delivery systems, and supply chains aligned to make that happen,” he says.

The corrugated box industry was already doing well, says Sasine. “There was going to be significant growth that would foster a stronger box market—no doubt about it,” he says.

That growth, of course, has risen exponentially over the past year.

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How Boxmakers Have Been Impacted In their financial results for 2020, Walmart, Amazon, Target, and Kroger all reported that they saw the equivalent of three years’ worth of e-commerce progress occur in just three quarters, says Sasine. “We saw year-over-year economic growth in the 70% range for some of them—well over 100% was reported by Target,” he says.

When the virus first emerged, though, there were initial concerns about the potential for a negative impact on demand for boxmakers’ products and services. Much of this concern proved to be unfounded.

As Justin Stacey, vice president of e-commerce at Fantastapack, notes: “The fear of sales results through last April– June has dissipated and has been replaced by a tidal wave of demand.” A rapid rise in sales during the third and fourth quarters of 2020, says Stacey, “created a lot of opportunities to capitalize on this growth as well as exposing many processes that were not load-tested to that degree.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an increase in demand for digitally printed packaging as brands were forced to pivot to e-commerce to stay alive, says Stacey. “This wave of demand has caused constraints in both supply chain and manufacturing throughput and lead times,” he says.

It’s not only box manufacturers that have been impacted by this demand, Sasine points out. Ancillary services have also been affected—“things like machinery, gluers—all of the ancillaries had very big years.”

Unexpected Barriers and Challenges— and New Opportunities Sharon Chesler is marketing manager at HP PageWide Industrial Corrugated.

“The packaging market is experiencing powerful trends these days that span the entire value chain—consumers, brands, and converters,” she says.

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HP’s customers also have experienced an increase in demand for high-graphics corrugated packaging, Chesler says.

“E-commerce was a major factor in the increase, but not the only one,” she says. “In general, the demand for HP digital packaging increased, as it demonstrated a resilient supply chain when traditional printing businesses closed.”

Greater demand has also led to longer lead times, says Stacey. At Fantastapack, he says, “we’ve been educating our customer base that longer lead times are now the new normal.” In addition, he says, Fantastapack has invested heavily in plant capacity and expanding locations to meet the increase in demand.

“We just installed our first Highcon laser converting device in an effort to greatly increase order throughput,” Stacey says. “We also acquired a digital print company and will break ground with them on a new building where we will double our operational output by the latter half of 2021.”

Rapid continuous improvement, Stacey says, has become a way of life. This has been necessary both to address emerging challenges and to take advantage of new opportunities.

“E-commerce created an opportunity for companies to reinvent themselves, instead of closing their businesses,” says Chesler.

“We’ve had a few new product launches directed at e-commerce selling that are

in direct response to the current market climate,” says Stacey.

The unboxing experience also has grown in importance during the pandemic, offering opportunities for boxmakers producing high graphics of corrugated packaging, Chesler says.

“Consumers appreciate an unboxing experience when getting their boxes ordered online,” she says. “The plain brown box became a marketing vehicle for companies to promote themselves and to provide upsell offering.

Personalization, customization, seasonal offerings are all available with digital packaging as part of the e-commerce businesses.”

What people order has also changed, Sasine notes—and changed in a way that increases the demand for boxed products. “There is a very important difference between what we used to buy in e-commerce and what we buy now,” he says. Before, purchases tended to be of higher dollar-value items and dense products, he says— DVD sets, expensive books.

“Whatever we were buying was very easy to ship, had quite an expensive price point, and was fairly impervious to transit damage.” For instance, he says, ordering a pair of shoes on the internet comes without much risk of product damage.

That’s not the case for the grocery, health, and beauty products that consumers are buying online now.

“The packaging market is experiencing powerful trends these days that span the entire value chain—consumers, brands, and converters.”

—Sharon Chesler, marketing manager, HP PageWide Industrial Corrugated

These purchases, Sasine says, “tend to be at a lower dollar value and larger in geometric dimensions. Add those principles together, and what you end up with is spending $100 on grocery items is going to require a much larger geometric space to ship than spending that same $100 on three books.”

It’s not just that consumers are buying more, it’s that they’re buying differently.

“That difference is what’s driving all of this additional volume,” Sasine says.

How They Have Responded Sasine says he thinks the industry has responded well, overall, to new challenges and increased demand. In part, this is because many had already made investments and process improvements to address increased demand that was already being predicted prior to the pandemic.

In 2020, says Chesler, “the industry has discovered new opportunities for digital corrugated technologies, highlighted the need for tight security, and encouraged the implementation of sustainability measures at every step of the manufacturing process.”

HP, she says, focused on developing innovative and sustainable technology for presses while their customers focused on growing their business despite the challenges the pandemic raised.

Meeting demand, says Stacey, requires “a speed of service that can’t expand within the traditional analog world of packaging.”

In addition to expanding plant capacity, Fantastapack is investing heavily in automation to expedite front-end purchases and back-end production flows to allow the company to scale with new customers and the number of orders they’ve received.

But it’s been challenging. “Digital printers and cutters have a top speed, and there are only 24 hours in a day,” Stacey says. “Whether you are a brand

“We’re confident that e-commerce packaging will continue to be the largest growth segment for us, directly or through our trade partnerships. All signs point to this trend continuing its meteoric pace of adoption.”

—Justin Stacey, vice president of e-commerce, Fantastapack

or a supplier, it’s important that we all see the issue for what it is and acknowledge that challenges have sprouted up in unforeseen ways.”

His advice: “Be kind and empathetic to each other when we realize supply chain disruptions, overcapacity, and a tidal wave of demand are pushing lead times out beyond what we were all used to pre-COVID. There is a new normal in the marketplace, and your business planning really needs to take that into account.”

The new normal is likely to continue moving forward, even after fears of COVID-19 have subsided.

What the Future Is Likely to Hold Chesler says she believes the boost in e-commerce is a trend that has just started. “Many converters started offering online package ordering, which offers small, medium, and even big companies who play in the e-commerce arena to reduce their costs and to serve their brands,” she says.

Stacey agrees. “We’re confident that e-commerce packaging will continue to be the largest growth segment for us, directly or through our trade partnerships,” he says. “All signs point to this trend continuing its meteoric pace of adoption.” The only thing that could slow them down, he says, would be capacity constraints in the marketplace.

As Sasine points out, consumer shopping patterns have changed—and have likely changed for the long term.

“Many consumers have learned over 2020 and the beginning of 2021 how easy and beneficial it is to purchase grocery items online—they’re not likely to snap back immediately simply because they can go in a store without a mask at some point this year,” he says.

The convenience factor that consumers have experienced has been significant, he adds.

“Data and analytics are key to knowing when these changes are happening,” Stacey says. “It’s too late to be at the forefront of this digital revolution, but you can watch market leaders in how they approach these challenges and not be afraid to follow their lead. E-commerce isn’t going away, so your operations should be moving toward capturing the changing needs of your customer.”

Efficiency in automation is the real key to staying on top of this rising demand, Stacey says. It’s highly likely that 2021 will be another banner year for box manufacturers.

Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Wisconsin-based freelance writer and a frequent BoxScore contributor.

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THE EDUCATION

DIFFERENCE

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Bettering your workforce starts with better education— and AICC has the resources and partnerships to help

By Geoff Williams

A

ICC has been all about education since it began in 1974. After all, the Association’s founding belief is that boxmakers are stronger together.

Boxmakers grow more, and become far more formidable, if they learn from each other and cooperate when they can, instead of reinventing the wheel.

We all know education is important.

But for too many of us, when we leave formal education behind, we never return to it.

AICC has been trying to change that through seminars, webinars, conferences, and online education. AICC does not do it alone. The Association

works with universities and its two foundations to ensurethe strength of the industry. There’s really so much that AICC offers.

Peruse the offerings, and one thing is clear: The barriers to continuing one’s education are falling.

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The Foundation for Packaging Education The Foundation for Packaging Education, created during the fall of 2020, aims to reach the people who are immersed in the boxmaking industry but recognize that there’s still plenty for established employees to learn. You may not have time to fly out or drive to some city and go to a seminar, but you probably have the time to take a one-hour course on flexographic print fundamentals or how to use value-stream mapping. (And if an hour seems like a long time, keep in mind, you don’t have to take the course all at once. You can digest it in, say, five or 10 minutes per evening, if you want.)

Long before the Foundation for Packaging Education, for much of AICC’s history, boxmaking seminars were held at conferences and sometimes independently, in the ballroom of a hotel or at a member’s plant, according to AICC President Michael D’Angelo.

“While seminars are well attended, it is hard for people from the plant to get away from their jobs, and the travel and lodging costs could be a barrier,” D’Angelo says.

So, although AICC still encourages firsthand, in-person learning, it began putting individual classes online. Still, as D’Angelo explains it, at first not everybody had the $90 to take a single AICC online course. It might not be an impediment for a business owner to shell out $90 for an employee to take a course, but if you were an individual who wanted to get ahead on your own, that amount could be a reach.

So AICC removed the fee. “Once that barrier of 90 bucks went away, participation exploded,” D’Angelo says.

Participation grew particularly during the start of the pandemic. Logins to take coursework doubled, in part because in the first few weeks of the lockdowns, manufacturing plants were slowing down, and employers didn’t want to lay people off, and using the time to train people how to do their jobs even better

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“As we know, companies that care about their employees invest in them, and when you invest in people, that fosters loyalty, and you’re more likely to fill open positions and promote from within and retain team members.”

—Michael D’Angelo, president, AICC

seemed like the smart approach. Which it “The program’s got legs,” D’Angelo says. was, given how the pandemic ultimately “And it’s something that AICC considers fueled the box industry throughout 2020, vital for our members and the success of with many companies setting records for their business. As we know, companies orders and having their best year yet. that care about their employees invest The online participation continued in them, and when you invest in people, as well. “People were taking the online that fosters loyalty, and you’re more likely courses, and suddenly we were under to fill open positions and promote from pressure to develop more courses, and within and retain team members. The No. that segues to where we are today,” 1 challenge in this industry is finding and D’Angelo says. retaining good people, because it’s tough The online catalogue now has more to get people to come into a manufacturthan 90 courses in both English ing facility to start with.” and Spanish.

Getting courses in place is easier said ICPF and Colleges than done. When asked if it was really AICC’s other foundation, the all that big a deal to drop the $90—how International Corrugated Packaging expensive is it to put up an online class, really?—D’Angelo lays out the costs.

There are the expenses for the learning management software that hosts the classes, the cost of paying people to put together and teach a course, and the cost of translating courses to Spanish, among other things. “There’s a whole supply chain to make sure these courses happen,” D’Angelo says, “and to make sure that we’re constantly developing new, interesting, and timely education materials.”

For instance, there’s the course on right-weighting, which refers to finding the right mix of substrates to appeal to both end-users and box manufacturers in terms of making sure a box hits the marks on cost, sustainability, strength, and efficiency. There’s the rotary die cutting operation course, which explores the use of rotary die cutters in corrugated packaging manufacturing and the production of in-store displays. There’s a maintenance mapping course. If you’re interested in taking a course on understanding accounts receivable and cash, there’s one for that, too. If human resources is your jam, there are—so far—three courses available. If you want a history course on the corrugated industry, you can take one. There are courses in leadership, sales, production, and safety.

Foundation (ICPF) was founded in the mid-1980s and designed to appeal to college students who might have an interest in boxmaking. It’s been a huge success over the years.

For instance, Ben Dolezal is an associate professor of visual communication design in the art and art history department at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). He has been teaching packaging design courses to college students since 2012. The two classes he currently teaches are called Packaging & 3D CAD and Advanced Packaging.

The courses are taught in a classroom— well, before the pandemic—but have utilized online materials from ICPF since

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the packaging design courses began at the university in 2012. The students also compete every year in the AICC Student Design Challenge, which offers cash prizes to the first-place winners. Quite a few UTA students have placed as top three finalists, Dolezal says, and more importantly, many of the alumni have gone on to illustrious careers.

“We have alumni from our program working in a variety of places around the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex,” Dolezal says. “Some of these include Frito-Lay, Mary Kay, Green Bay Packaging, Harris Packaging Corp., Southern Champion Tray, American Carton Co., Performance POP, Bioworld, and Smurfit Kappa Bates. These former students are working in roles that include packaging graphics, branding, and packaging structure design.”

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“If you really spend time with universities and find your way into the community, it’s a really great payoff for both your company and the students.”

—Jana Harris, president and CEO, Harris Packaging Corp.

The last year, however, was a challenge for UTA due to the pandemic, says Dolezal, who had to teach his courses online. In 2021, he has been offering a hybrid format with online and in-person instruction. “As you can imagine, it’s difficult to provide quality instruction online for a course topic that centers around three-dimensional design considerations,” Dolezal says, adding

that projects in the Packaging & 3D CAD course that students work on typically include a beverage label design, a product package design for a toy, and a shipper box design. He anticipates having purely in-person classes in the fall.

The Advanced Packaging course builds upon the knowledge students gain from the previous packaging course and provides opportunities to work

collaboratively on more complex packaging designs. “These projects include canned-beverage designs, subscription box design, and a countertop display that contains multiple products,” Dolezal says.

The pandemic didn’t only affect classes.

There have been a lot of changes to ICPF in the last year, according to Richard Flaherty, president of ICPF. Flaherty, who worked with universities to help them set up distance learning capabilities, also says that last summer, ICPF established a student advisory board that provided valuable input on how to stage a virtual dinner.

Every year, ICPF holds a dinner at which students interested in a career in corrugated packaging participate. Last December, with 30-some students from 10 different universities participating, the dinner was virtual.

ICPF also worked to identify available scholarships for packaging students whose families were financially impacted by COVID-19.

Still, while COVID-19 impacted the program, it hung on. Jana Harris, president and CEO of the Harris Packaging Corp., has been involved with AICC and UTA’s program for some time. Harris has been an AICC board of directors member for about a decade and is the chairperson of the AICC education committee.

She is an effusive supporter of ICPF and, several years ago, hired one of Dolezal’s students, who works at Harris Packaging and is now also an adjunct professor at UTA, teaching students about packaging. “If you really spend time with universities and find your way into the community, it’s a really great payoff for both your company and the students,” Harris says, adding that she has found talent simply by calling professors and asking them to recommend their best designer.

Harris also says that ICPF’s outreach to colleges has helped the industry immensely. “It’s eye-opening to students

for them to see what kind of jobs are out there. We have a lot of friendly competitors who want to hire people, and the corrugated industry is often off a student’s radar,” Harris says.

Adult and Workforce Learning Opportunities Since 2017, The Packaging School in Greenville, South Carolina, and Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, have offered certificates to packaging professionals.

The Packaging School offers a Certificate of Packaging Science, Certificate of Mastery in Packaging Management, and the Automotive Packaging Certificate. All courses in the Certificate of Packaging Science are free to AICC members. “All of our certifications are a bit different, but we do feel that they all help raise your packaging IQ to confidently communicate on topics such as material selection, production processes, critical influences, and packaging design,” says Julie Rice-Suggs, Ph.D., academic director at PackagingSchool.com.

“The certificates are predominantly aimed at those folks in the industry or looking to get into the industry. We see the majority of our users come from a packaging background—for example, engineers, designers, procurement, distribution— looking to level up their education or add some continued education credits to their résumés.”

The coursework, she says, uses a technique called “microlearning,” in which coursework is broken up into “bite-sized” lessons. “Corrugated board grades can get pretty tedious,” she says. “Lessons take the form of infographics, quick readings, videos, animations, discussions, and interactive slides.”

And while COVID-19 has ravaged much of the country, making everybody sick of it, like the packaging industry, online education has benefited from the pandemic. Rice-Suggs says that the

AICC members taking online courses tripled in March and April 2020 over the two previous months. “From our conversations with packaging professionals, they said that they had more time on their hands and wanted to take advantage of the free education when they could,” she says.

D’Angelo likes hearing that: “People are often well trained on the equipment that they’re using, but it’s important to understand what it means to be part of the supply chain, and the more you know about the industry, you have more of a sense of belonging at the company you’re working at.”

D’Angelo recalls, early during the pandemic, wishing government officials were more educated about the packaging industry. “Some states didn’t classify our workers as essential,” says an incredulous D’Angelo, who spent a lot of those early days on the phone trying to convince people at state capitols that the boxmaking industry employees should be allowed to go to work.

“We’d talk about how people were at home and ordering groceries and supplies, and I’d say, ‘Well, how do you think it gets there?’ And the light would come on, and they’d realize it gets there in a box, and they’d say, ‘Oh. I’ll call you right back,’” D’Angelo remembers. “And five minutes later, they’d say, ‘You guys are cleared.’ Honestly, some people at the state capitol have no idea what a supply chain is. Well, you want your employees to know their own why—why they do what they do—and that what they do is essential and good, honest, necessary work, and you can only do that through education and training.”

Geoff Williams is a journalist and writer based in Loveland, Ohio.

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The Associate Advantage

The True Value of a Value Proposition

BY JOE MORELLI JOE MORELLI HUSTON PATTERSON PRINTERS VICE CHAIRMAN JMORELLI@HUSTONPATTERSON.COM

PAT SZANY AMERICAN CORRUGATED MACHINE CORP. CHAIRMAN PSZANY@ACM-CORP.COM

GREG JONES SUN AUTOMATION GROUP SECRETARY GREG.JONES@SUNAUTOMATION.COM

TIM CONNELL A.G. STACKER INC. DIRECTOR TCONNELL@AGSTACKER.COM

DAVE BURGESS JB MACHINERY IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIRMAN DBURGESS@JBMACHINERY.COM

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B

usinesses of all kinds have been forced to pivot, adapt, and manage crisis situations as a regular occurrence throughout the past 14 months.

From a sales perspective, the core principles of relationship building have been turned upside down and may never return to normal. As we all look for the best way to adapt in sales, the solutions to our problems could be hiding in plain sight within our own organizations.

Several years ago, AICC partnered with Holly Green and her company, The Human Factor. During that time, she worked with numerous member and Associate member companies, including ours at Huston Patterson. Throughout that process, she forced us to take a hard look at our own company—the “business of our business” is the way she described it.

During that process, she asked us to come up with a value proposition, or a statement of innovation, service, or feature intended to make us attractive to our client base.

The clarity it brought to our organization was great. Everything we did as a company during those years, we did with our value proposition as our framework.

Then COVID-19 happened.

According to McKinsey & Company research, 70%–80% of B2B decisionmakers prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service. My first reaction to that statistic is that it seems like an incredibly high percentage! The article, however, details the reasoning behind it.

Safety and cost-savings are two obvious reasons why they detail the need to stay remote or visitor-free, but the biggest reason cited is efficiency of their workforce. The study shows U.S. companies are 10% more effective with their COVID-adapted model.

So, how can we as sales reps sell to a growing number of people who refuse to see us?

As we all try to figure it out, each of us has tried to adapt in different ways. At certain times, I know I just felt like I was treading water with bricks on my feet, doing whatever I could to manage our business. The moment things started turning better for us was when we circled back to what has always brought us success— our value proposition. By pivoting the delivery of our value proposition, we got back to the core of our framework. Sales expert Mark Roberts from OTB Solutions believes a good value proposition is the key, whether it is delivered in person or virtually.

The people who can best figure out how to deliver their value proposition virtually will be the winners. Several months ago, I spoke about the adaptations sales reps can make to make themselves relevant during the pandemic. I mentioned that embracing technology and the benefits it allows, combined with the old-school relationship tactics, can help maintain relationships or even strengthen them during this challenging time. Wrapping those new techniques into our current value proposition is key for us as we start to see the light at the end of this tunnel.

A good value proposition is key to any business. Adapting and pivoting the delivery of the value proposition will be crucial in the next generation of sales for all of us if we want to continue to thrive in years to come.

Joe Morelli is vice president of sales and marketing for Huston Patterson Printers and is vice chairman of AICC’s Associate board.

Machinery and Handling for the Corrugated Board Industry

Strength in Numbers

The ABCs of High-Speed Converting

BY MITCH KLINGHER

O

ne would think that with a high unemployment rate, finding people to work in your plant would be easy, but in my travels, this is still one of the biggest complaints that I hear from converters. Almost everyone is busy, and lead times on orders are getting longer and longer. And while the larger issue is a shortage of paper and sheets, the longer-term problem may very well be difficulty in finding quality people. In the last issue of BoxScore, I talked about whether the current economic conditions for converters would continue, and if they do, what moves converters should be making to secure their futures. I’ve written many articles on the fact that for most of you, machine hours are your most finite resource, and I still firmly believe that. But many of you have challenged this thinking by telling me that they are having massive problems finding people to run the machines. So, in an

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environment in which converters need to find more machine hours to be able to sell and are having difficulty finding good factory workers, the obvious answer is to embrace high-speed converting.

This means machines that set up quicker and run faster. It means robotics, pre-feeders and automatic takeoffs, palletizers, more conveyorization, and improved systems. In short, it means a significant retooling and reinvestment in your businesses. But how can you justify this investment, if it does not add any new capabilities for you to sell to your customers? Unless you are a three-shift operation, it is unlikely that labor savings alone will justify the expenditure, unless you are OK with long payback periods.

So why spend the money?

The short answer is that, for the most part, the more people you have, the more headaches you have, and as I said earlier, it is very difficult to find people who are

happy working at fairly menial jobs in your plant. In addition, people are far more prone to error than machines are, so your defect and damage losses will be minimized. But the key to all of this is that by running faster with more uptime, you will create more machine hours per shift to sell. Every plant has a different set of constraints that they have to overcome, but the biggest common constraint that everyone shares is the finite number of hours they have to utilize their productive capabilities. In my opinion, the goal of every manufacturing company should be the maximization of the number of hours that the company has available to utilize.

Management will then have the most options available to it use in the effort to maximize profits.

In some circumstances “speed-based” investments are easy to justify. If you assume that the overall cost of each person per shift is $50,000, and you

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are looking for a three-year payback on your investment, then each person you eliminate per shift will justify a $150,000 investment. In a two-shift operation, each person you eliminate justifies a $300,000 investment, and in a three-shift operation, eliminating one person per shift will pay for a $450,000 investment. Obviously, if you can eliminate an entire shift, you can justify a fairly large investment just by the savings in labor and related costs. At the end of the day, it is fairly rare to find a large capital investment that can be justified entirely by plant savings.

In most cases, the justification scenario must be based on more intangibles than on calculations, and it often becomes a leap of faith. Many larger corporations will run complex internal rate of return scenarios and attempt to calculate the effect on the overall economic value of the company. While these may be useful things to do in the realm of large publicly held corporations, for most privately held companies, I think it comes down to the following.

The risks associated with not making the investment: 1. Will we run out of machine hours to sell? Many of you are at this point already.

2. Can we find “acceptable” plant personnel? That’s a real challenge that will likely get worse if the economy continues to heat up.

3. Will we be at a competitive disadvantage? Many converters are pretty far down this path already.

4. As the mill system moves to lighter board and the customers start demanding lighter-weight boxes, will my existing equipment be able to convert the board? That depends on how light they go and what bells and whistles you currently have.

5. If my competitors embrace high-speed converting, will I be able to continue to compete with them? Speed kills, especially when

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evaluating longer-run business.

When you start looking at margin per hour, someone with equipment that sets up and runs two or three times faster than you do has a significant advantage.

The risks associated with making the investment: 1. Can my current balance sheet support the investment? Many businesses with weaker balance sheets have tried to structure “operating leases” in the past, to keep the additional debt off of their balance sheets. The new lease pronouncement that was made a few years ago by the Financial Accounting Standards Board is supposed to become effective in 2021. This new standard will force businesses to capitalize all leases and show a depreciable asset and a liability on the balance sheets, so this strategy will no longer work.

2. If I do not generate new sales for a period of time, can I afford to make the payments? Remember that the IRS is still giving you 100% bonus depreciation through 2022 and then 80% bonus depreciation in 2023 and 60% in 2024, so as long as you are making money, you can use the depreciation

expense to reduce your taxes and fund some of the negative cash flow.

3. If I take on a lot of debt and am looking to sell my company in the near future, won’t this adversely affect me?

While it is true that interest-bearing debt will generally reduce the amount of money that a seller will put in his pocket, the flip side of this is that the buyer of a company with poor equipment will likely reduce the price by the cost of upgrading the equipment anyway.

High-speed converting equipment and increased plant mechanization is not cheap, but with so many converters getting into this game, you will be forced to pull the trigger at some point if you are going to stay competitive. It’s always best to take risks when you are strong, and the converting business has been booming through the pandemic, so this may be the right time for you to start moving in this direction.

Mitch Klingher is a partner at Klingher Nadler LLP. He can be reached at 201-731-3025 or mitch@ klinghernadler.com.

Planning for the future is one of your most important jobs. Selling your business, succession planning, equipment decisions and expansions require the best advice and strategy. We’ve been providing Business Planning Services to the independent converter for over 30 years. Need to make a big decision? Call us now.

STILL the Industry Experts 580 Sylvan Avenue, Suite M-A Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 (201) 731-3025 • Fax: (201) 731-3026 info@klinghernadler.com

Foundation for Packaging Education

Events, Anyone?

I

ndustry response to the launch of the Foundation for Packaging Education has been solid and gratifying. Pledges are coming in at a regular pace, donation dollars are being received, the mission is set, and we stand on the threshold of AICC’s Million Dollar Match.

Sights now turn to fundraising next steps. Fundraising next steps? Aren’t donations and the pledges behind them fundraising? The answer is yes, of course.

But fundraising for the foundation goes beyond pledges. The board of directors envisions events that can not only bring attention to the foundation’s mission, assuring training and education programs continue to be in place for the industry’s existing workforce, but also to supplement the pledges being received.

The foundation’s board is eager to hear ideas from you, the members

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of AICC, as to what events could be interesting enough for your participation going forward.

Golf is an obvious one, as this is an industry that enjoys time on the links.

The Foundation for Packaging Education is one of the two worthy causes (the other is Driving Out Darkness) that received monies from the 7th Annual Independents Cup Golf Tournament, contested during the AICC Spring Meeting in Amelia Island, Florida.

We are an association that likes to get together. This has probably never been truer than now, coming out of the pandemic and the associated limitations, lockdowns, and quarantines. Members enjoy being with each other and have been away from doing so for some time.

What are your thoughts regarding fundraising events? A particular city or region that makes sense? A certain

time of year? A sporting event or recreational venue that can be a drawing card? Something that you would like to share with your friends and colleagues in the industry? Should a foundation event always be tied to an AICC event, or should it be something that stands alone?

We know that AICC members are extremely generous. The latest example of this has been your response and support of one another during the uncertainties and challenges raised by the pandemic.

Your generosity toward the foundation, introduced only last November, is off to an auspicious start.

Please be just as generous with your ideas on some next steps for the foundation.

Send your suggestions to Michael D’Angelo at mdangelo@aiccbox.org. We will keep you advised in these pages where your sense of fun is taking us!

Thank You, Education Investors These companies are making a significant contribution to the online education available to all AICC members.

For more information, contact Mike D’Angelo, President, 703.535.1386 or mdangelo@aiccbox.org.

International Corrugated Packaging Foundation I N T E R N AT I O N A L

PACKAGING

CORRUGATED

F O U N D AT I O N

‘Virtual’ ICPF Teleconference on the Business of Corrugated Packaging & Displays and the Career Opportunities Draws 400 Students and Faculty

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lmost 400 students and faculty from 17 universities participated in ICPF’s 2021Teleconference on the Business of Corrugated Packaging & Displays and the Career Opportunities on April 1. Although, due to pandemic restrictions, the Teleconference had a much different look and structure this year, participation exceeded expectations. The Zoom program, moderated by Kelsea Potthast (University of Florida, business administration/marketing major and packaging science minor), began with the presentation of a video on various

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technologies utilized by the industry.

Keynote speaker Brian McPheely, global CEO of VISY/Pratt Industries, followed with a detailed overview of the business of corrugated packaging and displays.

Students then were transferred to 15 individual and preassigned breakout sessions, where they directly asked industry questions that were answered by 15 representatives from Buckeye Corrugated Inc., Green Bay Packaging, Lawrence Packaging Corp., Packaging Corp. of America, Pratt Industries, WestRock Corp., and UniCorr Packaging Group.

Throughout the Teleconference, students were advised to regularly visit ICPF’s Career Portal, where they can apply to employment opportunities posted by these and other ICPF Corporate Partner firms throughout the year.

Participating universities included Appalachian State University, Bowling Green State University, Cal Poly, Clemson University, Illinois State University, Indiana State University, Lewis Clark State College, Michigan State University, Millersville University, North Carolina A&T State University,

International Corrugated Packaging Foundation I N T E R N AT I O N A L

PACKAGING

CORRUGATED

F O U N D AT I O N

North Carolina State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rutgers University, University of Florida, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Wisconsin‒Stout, and Virginia Tech.

The hundreds of students who joined the Teleconference posted their résumés in the ICPF Career Portal’s Résumé Bank prior to the broadcast. Their résumés can

be viewed among the over 500 active student and upcoming/new graduate résumés currently posted there. Those firms that are active ICPF Corporate Partners have immediate access to the Résumé Bank after posting current positions for student interns or new graduates.

A video of the Teleconference’s general session can be viewed from

the 2021 Teleconference link found on ICPF’s website, www.careersincorrugated.org.

Richard Flaherty is president of the International Corrugated Packaging Foundation.

IN N OVATIN G RELIABLE, PROV EN , COST-SAV IN G SOLUTION S FOR TH E CORRUGATED IN D USTRY SIN CE 1 9 3 2 Silver Sponsor

BOXSCORE www.aiccbox.org

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The Final Score

On Supply Chains

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upply chain disruptions are occurring across myriad industries. What are we to make of the difficulties that AICC members are facing in their own supply chains?

The paper-based printing and converting industry’s primary raw materials, in their rawest forms, are timber and oil. Both these commodities are right here in North America—in abundance.

The supply chains within those sectors, thus far in 2021, have themselves succumbed to an unusual number of natural and manmade events that have resulted in a supply shortage of paper, adhesives, and other related components.

Many business publications are trying to explain the causes and to suggest ways to make the global supply chain more resilient. It seems even members of Congress can agree that the government should look into ways to optimize conditions for “reshoring” the supply chain for U.S.based businesses.

According to an article on BigCommerce.com, there are six types of supply chain disruptions: pandemics; natural disasters; transportation failures and delays; product problems; price fluctuations; and cyberattacks.

If you’re doing business in our industry as either a converter or a supplier, you are painfully aware that in 2020, and now 2021, we have checked the boxes for all six of the above categories.

Bob Novack, Ph.D., associate professor of business logistics at Penn State University, explains, “This pandemic is like a natural disaster, but it’s also not. The results of a natural disaster on the supply chain are usually localized and short-lived. In a pandemic, it’s global. It’s the rapid increase in demand that a pandemic creates that puts additional strain on suppliers.”

So, the pandemic serves as the driver of demand that exacerbates the effect of all the other disruption types. Weather events in the Southeast and Gulf states, where timber and oil are processed, created the localized impact. Semitrailers and drivers themselves have gotten more difficult to find as they chase the highest-paying loads. Product problems created by disruptions in other supply chains have hit the spare parts and repair markets. Price fluctuations (read rises) in paper, inks, and transportation are repetitive news.

Cyberattacks hit three of the industry’s producers. To these we can add the already difficult manpower situation and the government competing with enhanced unemployment.

The potential solutions for protecting your company against supply chain disruption are not as apparent in our, dare I say, somewhat parochial industry—although some do source globally. I’ll share them for what they’re worth, courtesy of Gayatri Bhaumik, writing for Easyship: Create a supply chain emergency plan; build up inventory; conduct a supply chain vulnerability audit; identify backup suppliers; diversify the supply base; partner with a logistics expert; and adopt risk evaluation tools.

Our industry has a primarily onshore supply chain—one that reaches less far and has local reassuring alternatives. They’re all jammed. How many times have you heard “we’re all in the same boat” and “where else are you going to go” this year?

I’ve been in the industry nearly 40 years and have never seen anything like this.

Michael D’Angelo AICC President

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