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Written by Eric Slack
From Paper & Packaging International
Founded in 1973, Wisconsin Film & Bag has become a recognized regional
manufacturer of custom specification, single-layer, polyethylene film
and bag products for industrial and food applications. After committing
to an expansion effort in 1993, the company has been able to grow and
provide products made with standard FDA resins as well as products made
with its internally produced ECO Blend resins made from post-consumer
film scrap.
“We sell through packaging distributors in the Midwest and the Eastern
U.S.,” President Jim Feeney says. “We ship products to 38 different
states, but our marketing efforts are focused on supporting distributors
in the 20 to 25 states in the central and eastern part of the country.”
STRONG STRUCTURE
Wisconsin Film & Bag sells to local, regional and national packaging
distributors who sell a wide bandwidth of packaging supplies to
commercial end-users. The packaging distributor is a skilled solutions
provider offering an array of products to meet an end-user's packaging
requirements. In fiscal year 2014, the company produced 50 million
pounds of polyethylene film and bag products at its Shawano, Wis.-based
blown film and extrusion operation.
The company also has a plastic film-recycling center in Shawano, which
each year processes more than 20 million pounds of postindustrial and
post-consumer film scrap. The resin pellets produced at the recycling
center are used in making industrial application, film and bag products
for the ECO Blend product line.
“We have 10 regional sales managers who work closely with the packaging
distributors in their assigned geographic area,” Feeney says. “They are
our employees and live in their area of responsibility. They are
familiar with the distributors in their area and often make combined
sales calls on the end-user with the distributor sale rep.”
In Shawano, a team of account specialists works with their assigned
regional managers to provide immediate and complete support to
distributor sales and purchasing people. This process provides the
distributor with fast and easy access to order entry, price quotes and
order inquiries.
“Our distributors know they can expect a response to a quote request
within two hours and oftentimes within 30 minutes,” Feeney says. “This
is one of the numerous reasons we have become recognized as the
easy-to-do-business-with company.”
All of the company's products are custom-made to meet a customer's
precise specifications. Fast, accurate response is at the heart of
effectively supporting a packaging distributor who is selling many
different packaging products and is continually pressed for time.
Experienced customer service people have the authority to make decisions
in support of distributors' needs.
INVESTING IN INNOVATION
Wisconsin Film & Bag has continued to look for ways to invest in its
operations. In 2010, the company embarked on a major development project
to learn how to recycle clear, post-consumer film scrap into
high-quality resin with strength properties similar to virgin resin. The
result was three U.S. patents for a process to clean post-consumer
polyethylene film scrap.
“Many people believe innovation comes exclusively from very large
companies, but in reality it is the small and medium-size companies like
us that must take risks to remain competitive and offer new products to
their customers,” Feeney says.
Investing in innovation has helped the company keep up with demand for
packaging with post-consumer content, a trend which Feeney says is
growing each year.
“Our ECO Blend product line of post-consumer content film and bag
packaging products has been the company's fastest-growing product line
and has fueled a continuing double-digit growth trend,” Feeney says.
“At the core of ECO Blend's success in the market is its strength
properties and parity in pricing with virgin resin products,” Feeney
continue. “While companies want to offer green products that support
their sustainability initiatives, they have clearly demonstrated an
unwillingness to accept inferior performing product that costs more than
the virgin resin alternative. ECO Blend more than satisfies their price
and performance requirements.”
In the past 18 months, the company built its fourth expansion and added
two additional extruders. In 2015, Wisconsin Film & Bag plans to add two
more extruders.
Wisconsin Film & Bag will focus on continuous improvement in both the
post-consumer recycling and extrusion processes. This will allow the
company to position its products with its distributors so they remain
competitive in terms of both price and product offering.
“Our priority is to remain focused on growth of both our business and
our distributors' business,” Feeney says. “We will continue to invest
aggressively in equipment for both the recycling operation and the
extrusion operation.” |